Loss, Hope & Redemption
by Gaming Ikari
Summary: Loss, Hope, & Redemption is the story of Ranma's principles, and his inability to deviate from them even at great personal cost. Written in the first person, from Ranma's point of view. Rated T for darker themes. Now finished!
1. Prologue

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Prologue

≈

Something bad was about to happen. I could feel it. Every time something really bad came stomping into my life, I could feel the little hairs on the back of my neck rise in warning. The last time I got this feeling was when I saw Plum running from those bird people, and this feeling of mine was right then. Last time, I had to fight a god. Well, I'm pretty sure he was a god. Half-god, maybe. Normal people don't burn up and turn back into babies when they get ripped to shreds. They stay all wet and ripped to shreds. Ryouga would've stayed all ripped to shreds.

Then again, our fights never got that serious. He wasn't ever stupid enough to threaten Akane.

The problem this time was that the feeling came outta nowhere, unless eating some leftover rice from dinner was going to cause some titanic struggle for my soul. I examined the bowl of rice and saw that yeah, it was just rice with a few pieces of tempura shrimp on top. Walking out of the kitchen I crossed the living room and sat on the edge of the porch, staring at the sliver of a moon peeking out from behind dark clouds. The whisper of the wind as it blew through the trees was the only sound, aside from the far-off buzz of downtown Tokyo traffic.

I wasn't convinced. Rice in one hand and chopsticks in the other, I walked out from under the roof of the porch and performed a small leap onto the roof of the Dojo. Absently munching on the re-heated tempura shrimp, I scanned the surrounding rooftops, enhancing my awareness with a chi technique I picked up from Cologne. Still nothing at all, for nearly a mile around me. The chi under my control embraced every speck of life within that radius, and still I felt nothing.

Now I was getting paranoid. You don't get as good as I do without learning to trust your instincts, and my instincts were telling me to run and hide. Something bad was coming, something that I should run from. Not that I would, but those instincts did make a pretty damned good warning sign. I pricked my ears up as I heard a faint flapping sound. Too heavy for any normal sized bird. That'd probably make it one of Saffron's people, or Shinnosuke'd finally forgotten his duties at Ryuugenzawa.

A glance in the direction of the sound proved that Shinnosuke was still alive, clueless, and beating large helpless animals into paste. The winged person flying in my direction, however, didn't look quite alive. She was pressing her hands against her side, and an empty scabbard at her hip told me she was either useless with her weapon, or had seen the losing end of a fight recently. I carefully put my empty rice bowl on the roof and began a sprint across the rooftops. As I got closer, I recognized the bird woman as Kiima, her face pale and her hazel eyes pained. Those same eyes took me in as I bounced rooftop to rooftop, and I saw immense relief as she allowed herself to drop to the roof at my feet with a grunt.

"Kiima! Hey, you alright?" As I came to a stop right next to her collapsed form, I saw she was out cold. Her face was pale, and her breathing was laboured. I knelt, and wordlessly took in the blood welling up through the rips in her tunic. It looked pretty bad, but I was pretty sure she'd live if I got her to a warm bed. At the moment, I wanted nothing more than to rush her to Tofu's clinic, but the place had been deserted for months. I gathered her in my arms, intent on getting her back to the dojo and getting her fixed up. I wanted to know what was happening.

I was distracted by Kiima's wounds, I guess. I dunno why, but I wasn't paying attention as I bounded back to the Tendo's. That was why when someone jumped up to attack me between rooftops, I wasn't prepared. Instinctively pulling Kiima closer to my chest, I grunted as a clawed hand raked across my lower body and sent me twisting into the night. I flipped in midair and caught the side of a low apartment building with my feet, and used that to propel myself towards the ground. I landed, barely kicking up the ghost of a whisper. My senses extended, searching for my foe and examining Kiima more closely.

"Come out and fight me, you dirty coward!" I yelled, angry with myself and with my opponent. Who didn't even announce themselves before they attacked? Granted, I'm the best there is, but that's no excuse! I allowed my battle aura to surge forth, lighting the area around me in a shifting blue light. There, crounching in the shadows of a house two doors down. Either he was wearing an animal's fur or he was actually part animal, because the few details I could pick out were greyish fur and wolf-like ears. "There's no use hiding! I know where you are! Come out and fight me!"

Part of me wanted to close the distance. I wanted to pound the bastard into the dirt, my rage growing as I felt the blood trickling my left leg. Not much, little more than a scratch. It'd be closed within an hour, and healed by morning. The problem was that it was still enough, especially with me carrying an injured person... even if that person was pretty much an enemy. Still, he didn't move. He stayed crouched there, watching me. I couldn't go back to the dojo, not with this guy out here. This fight was going to happen sooner or later, and a large part of me wanted it to happen right now.

There was no use running. Either he was weaker than me and I could kick the crap outta him before I dealt with Kiima, or he was better than me, toying with me, and she was already dead.

"I said, come and fight me you-" I cut off and jumped straight up as I heard a scuff to my left, and a large shape passed below me. He stumbled as he passed below me swinging his large arms through empty air, and I threw Kiima still further up as I reached the apex of my own leap. Cupping my now free hands to me, I screamed. "Mouko Takabisha!"

Brilliant yellow energy briefly flashed at my side before flying directly at the larger of my two opponents, washing over and consuming him. The energy burst on contact, and bright light filled the neighborhood and illuminated my opponent before ploughing a trench into the street with his face... an ugly face I saw, framed by two tiger-striped shoulder guards. Lime. Which would make the other one-

"Mint." I growled as I gently caught Kiima. She hadn't even noticed. I glanced at Lime, slowly shaking off the rough treatment his failed attack visited on him as Mint stepped out of the shadows. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"This doesn't involve you, Ranma." Mint returned, walking over to his downed friend. He rocked back and forward on his heels as he considered me. Eager. Eager but wary, now. Over two months earlier I'd fought Herb to a standstill, with me at the disadvantage. Now, I was male and pissed off. Still, he pressed on: "Just let us have the bird woman and we'll leave."

"You two losers think you can beat me?" I chuckled, taking them in. I only had a minor injury, but Lime still looked half out of the fight. Since fighting these two, I'd only gotten stronger. Clearly they hadn't, not by any measurable degree. Kiima shifted in my arms, and I knew this had to be finished quickly. "Y'know, I was able to beat Herb pretty easy. Think you two clowns will do any better?"

"We're stronger now, Ranma." Mint snarled, and blurred out of sight. I flared my aura, not bothering to move. Coming back into view, Mint tumbled down the street as he was knocked off balance as the pressure of my aura took him in. He finally regained his footing and slid to a stop forty feet away. I took a step towards him, and he backed off. "You've won this one, but we'll be back!"

Mint blurred again, and he was gone. Lime must have disappeared while I was concentrating on his partner. Shifting Kiima in my arms, I made my way back to the dojo.

≈

"Why should we protect her?" Nabiki had always been cold... But this was brutal. Yeah, Kiima was the reason Akane nearly died, but anyone willing to kill someone in cold blood was not someone I was dealing with. My father, Tendou, and Kasumi stood to the side, watching. Didn't they realise that the past didn't matter, the present did? At present, Kiima clearly needed my help. The fact they were even questioning it was beginning to make me angry.

"Nabiki... How many of my friends now were enemies before?" I questioned, still tending Kiima's numerous wounds. "Ryouga, Mousse, even Shampoo... They all tried to kill me. Maybe I'm wrong, but weren't they all at our Christmas party? Aren't they friends now? How is Kiima any different?"

"She put my sister in danger, Ranma. I heard the story." Nabiki is pure ice, now. She's in the sort of mood I can see her in while demanding money of Hiroshi or Daisuke on payday, taking most of their hard-earned money in interest. Doesn't much bother me at the moment.

"Ryouga's the reason Akane's hair is shorter. Shampoo caused Akane to forget me entirely. Even Mousse nearly cursed Akane with a Jusenkyo curse... How are they different?" My ire was up. I wasn't all too happy with Nabiki right now. Yeah, she was angry with me. It was my decision not to leave Kiima to those two... But she wasn't a bad person, I didn't think. We'd fought, but she'd left us alone when we'd left the lands of the Pheonix people. "Why, because she was the one who I fought last month? 'Cause she kidnapped Akane?"

A glass of cold water washed over Kiima's form, and I was suddenly staring directly into the pained face of Akane. I hadn't even notice the glass in Nabiki's hand. Kiima groaned and twisted as her wounds reopened with the shifting of her body's shape. Fresh blood stained her tunic, and the bandages I'd tied were torn apart as her form expanded.

"Nabiki, what the hell is your problem! You coulda hurt her!" I yelled, slamming my fist into the floor. I angrily ripped apart more sheets for bandages, while yanking off the old, split bandages from Kiima's body. More blood, maybe more than she could afford to lose at this point. Some of the wounds had been deeper than I'd thought. I shot a glare at the brunette as I redid the bandages. "She's hurt enough as is! Don't go triggering her curse!"

"Ranma, what is your problem?" Nabiki growled, leaning in close. Her eyes were wild with emotion I'd rarely seen in her before. "This girl nearly caused Akane to be killed! Why are you helping her?"

I took a deep breath, eventually meeting Nabiki's gaze. I don't know if she saw something in them that she'd just never noticed before, or if I'd come to some decision about my life and decided to change things. I don't think I'll ever be able to seperate the difference, really. All I know is that I surprised her with my response.

"Doesn't matter who she is. She's in trouble. It's my duty to help out." I was calm about this statement. It felt right, like nothing I'd ever said before. I'd said the words, but in the past they'd been convenient. I'd help those who needed help, but choosing the other path would have been personally harder, not easier. Before, refusing to help Akane, or Ryouga, or anyone would have pissed everyone off. Now because of the principles everyone held me to, I was pissing people off.

Despite what people might think about my intelligence, the irony of the situation wasn't lost on me.

"Boy, are you turning your back on your fiance?" Of course, my old man would put things that way. In his mind, things were always in black and white... With his decisions being right and anything else being wrong. Seeing the look on old man Tendou's face, I knew my father had struck a cord. Nabiki grinned with something akin to triumph though in the back of mind, behind the rising anger, I think she realised I'd been pushed far enough to push back.

"If it comes down to Kiima's life or this engagement, I choose Kiima's life!" I growled, glaring at my father. In my own head, I'd done more for Akane than anyone could ask. A pheonix rose up against me, and in Akane's name and Akane's name alone, I'd vanquished my enemy. That fight had not been about my pride, either in my own infallibility or in my skill in martial arts. That fight had been about Akane's life, and in that fight I'd been victorious against a foe almost anyone would have fled from.

Instead, I'd wound up tearing his damned head off of his shoulders. All in Akane's name. In my own head, I had nothing to prove to these people. Nothing to prove to myself. I loved Akane, plain and simple. I could admit it, to myself. I would not let anyone else die in her name, even if it meant pissing off these fools. In my head, I was sure Akane wouldn't want Kiima's death on anyone's conscience, especially in the name of her pride.

In your head, everything seems clear. More clear than the most perfectly shaped crystal. Clearer than the purest water in the brightest sunlight.

"You're abandoning my daughter?" Soun growled, and I knew things were about to spiral out of control. This was not an issue I could back down on, not with a person's life on the line. Slinging Kiima's prone form over my shoulder, I glared at the man, daring him to continue.

"One more word Tendou, and I'm gone for good. I ain't gonna let you say anything bad about Kiima. She stays, or I go." Full of bravado, I made this statement. Full of the boundless confidence which ruled my every action. In my mind, this statement had only one solution. Kiima would stay. Her wounds would be tended properly. She would get the bedrest she needed, and then in the morning she'd tell me who's ass I'd have to kick to make things alright. Then I'd go do it, and a week later everything would be back to the way it was.

In retrospect, it's hard to blame Akane's reaction to the scene. Half-asleep, she came into the living room to see her doppleganger slung over my shoulder, my steely eyes meeting the anger of the people she trusted the most.

"Ranma, what's going on here?" Akane demanded. This was my chance, I realised as she spat the words out angrily. This was my chance to vindicate myself of everything and get her to agree with me. Surely she'd see the reason for tending to Kiima's wounds. The woman was hurt. She was being chased by forces that were, compared to her skills, undefeatable. Already she'd lost her weapon and her will to fight. Half-unconscious and grasping at straws, at hope, she'd come to the home of her enemies.

"Ranma doesn't care about you, Akane! He's chosen Kiima over you!" Soun growled, and in that moment I knew my cause to be lost. Anger steeled Akane's eyes now, and I knew that nothing I could say at the moment could change anything. She furiously glared at me, her gaze demanding an answer and apology all in one even before the first word of denial escaped my lips. Kiima whimpered on my back.

My choice was clear.

"Akane..." I began, and her demeanor didn't change one bit. I guess that at the time her mind was set. Either I set down Kiima and go to her, or I've chosen Kiima over her. Black and white, just the way my old man liked things. In the back he stood, not commenting any further. His concept of the situation was plainly evident on the disapproving glare on his face. I looked at Akane. In her eyes, I saw no questions, no forgiveness. Only anger. Kiima's weight didn't strain my muscles, but I could feel every pound of her burden on my soul. No more choices.

Keep it simple, stupid. Nabiki's advice, long ago. Less than a year, but an eternity. My face calmed, and I took one last look at the place which had been my home for over a year and a half. Longer than I'd had a home for over a decade, and this was how it ended. At least I'd be leaving an impression. My eyes turned back to my fiance... Soon to be my ex-fiance, the rotten little voice in my head informed me. I didn't disappoint him.

"I'm sorry." Maybe it was just the words, words she'd seldom heard from my lips before. Maybe it was the steely look in my eyes as things rapidly spinned out of control and I maintained the course which I'd plotted. Whatever it was, it broke her anger and turned it to sadness. She fled back up the stairs, leaving only a sparkling trail of tears. I watched it, steeling my heart against this reaction.

Wordlessly, not acknowleding the rest of the household, I gathered my pack and left.

≈

Camped outside of the outskirts of Nerima, Kiima awoke. By this point I'd gathered myself sufficiently to present a strong mask to her, despite the fact that her questioning eyes wore Akane's face.

"How did it happen?" I asked. I allowed a slow grin to come to my face. The grin was empty, but in the back of my mind I hoped she didn't notice. "Who's ass do I gotta kick to make things better again?"

I hoped I could.

≈

Author's Notes:

This is just a little something I've had cooking in the background of other, non-fanfiction related projects. It will be updated when inspiration strikes and where the word count is sufficient enough to actually call it an update. Reviews are very much appreciated but not required.

Minor Edit: Formatted the prologue to match later chapters. The actual content remains unchanged.


	2. Chapter 1

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Chapter 1

≈

"Herb has gone to war with the Phoenix people. Some Amazons have joined with him, although we don't know if they are renegades or if this was… planned." It was a simple statement, given in Akane's voice but adding layers of hard iron to her tones which I'd never heard from my tomboy's mouth. She wasn't looking at me, but staring into the fire. "He's using the Chiisuiton against our warriors, trapping them in their human forms. Losing the ability to fly means we've lost our most important advantage against those beasts."

Her hands gripped the fabric of the black pants she'd borrowed from me, and I knew just how important that loss was.

"Right now, we are holed up in our mountain fortress. Even his army will have trouble taking us out of there. We can't strike back, however. Not without the ability to fly out of our upper entrances." This information told me several valuable things… Mainly that the situation, while dire, was still salvageable. It told me that Herb was now using his mind, as well as his strength. It told me that maybe this was all my fault, because Saffron wasn't there to protect his people. For a moment, I felt his hot blood spray across my face again, but it was gone an instant later.

"So, we just gotta get the Kaisufuu." I said, folding my arms. Seemed pretty simple to me. "I'll go kick Herb's ass again, and then we can turn everybody back to normal."

"It won't be that easy." Finally, her gaze meets my own and her face is haunted. Now, she's not seeing anything but looking back into her memories. I nod, and that seems to break the spell. She continues, "When Herb first attacked, he nearly made it to Lord Saffron's chambers. We managed to push him and his forces back out, but we've learned that while he was retreating he stole the Kinjakan and the Gekkaja. These combined with his Hiryu Shoten Ha have made him much more powerful."

So, Herb had those two magical staves. I still remembered the heat given off by the Kinjakan. The cold of the Gekkaja had reached me even deep in the Soul of Ice technique. Combined, those two would make for a very powerful opponent the hands of any martial artist.

That ignored the fact that on a personal level Herb was probably stronger than Saffron was, when Saffron didn't have his magical toys. With those two items in his possession, he'd be a much more impressive opponent… probably a lot more powerful than I was. Direct confrontation with him would almost certainly mean a loss for me.

That was even if he'd let me fight him one on one. He'd certainly have an army with him, and I somehow doubted they'd sit idly by while I kicked Herb's ass. They had to be neutralized somehow.

"Well, this should be fun." I chuckled, shifting so I was lying on my side. Now I was the one staring into the flickering camp fire. I mulled over my options as I let the dancing of the flames throw me into a sort of trance. I needed to have a face to face with Herb. I needed to test myself against him before I made any decisions. Maybe I could take his staves away from him. Maybe I could distract him long enough for others to grab the Kaisufuu. Something to fix this problem. I'd destroyed the balance of that little valley, and it was my job to restore it.

"You certainly have an interesting definition of fun, Saotome," Kiima drawled, and I chuckled, a cocky grin coming to my face. I glanced at her, and saw something unreadable in her face… almost like she was weighing me. Her face suddenly went pale as she read the look in my eyes like a book. "You want this fight. You want to face Herb and his forces. The idea of him having the Kinjakan and the Gekkaja excites you!"

She'd nailed it in one. I swung myself around, and got to my feet in one smooth motion. As I stretched, several of my joints popped. I began to walk off. I needed to train.

"Where are you going?" She demanded, now almost sounding angry. Angry, or frightened. I didn't know which one it was.

I stopped, glancing over my shoulder at her. She almost shrunk back from me. I guess I had 'that look', as my old man always called it. I'd never seen it myself, as I was always training when it happened… but he'd always described it as feral. I grinned.

"If I don't train, I won't be able to kick Herb's ass and take his new toys away from him. I've been working on that flying trick of his. It's pretty draining, but I have the feeling I'm just doing it wrong. I think I'm going to need it if I'm going to be fighting him." Her eyes widened, and I walked into the night.

I hoped I was wrong about the technique. Like I was using it now, it took almost all of my chi to work. I could maintain it for only a few minutes before I was exhausted. If I was using it right already, it meant Herb was a lot stronger than I'd given him credit for… But I knew that couldn't be the case. I'd beaten him once, I could do it again.

Rest could come later. I needed to learn that technique before I got to China.

≈

We made slow progress towards the harbor where we could grab the boat to China. A train would have gotten us there in a day or two, but we needed to save what little money I had for the boat tickets. Kiima was still pretty injured, and I was training to the point of exhaustion every night. Over the course of the two weeks it took us to get there, she regained her own strength while mine grew.

She was always in Akane's form, me not wanting to risk her injuries against further transformations. At first, I almost called her by the name of my tomboy. I always caught myself, but I could tell she noticed. I didn't know if that bothered her or not, but she never said anything about it.

In an effort to focus my mind, I threw myself even further into the training, beginning as soon as we stopped for the day and finishing only when I was too weak to continue. One morning I woke up so tired that we were forced to stay where we were as I recovered. We were only able to continue on after the sun had almost set.

In those two weeks, I quickly learned her mannerisms. By the end, I could tell the difference between her and the real Akane at a glance. Even though she wore the youngest Tendou's form, her habits were so un-Akane that I barely recognized her as sharing the same face as my tomboy, at times. She moved with a careful grace, almost considering every step before she took it. She was constantly aware of her surroundings, always looking around and noticing sounds even I would miss… I doubted I could sneak up on her without the aid of the Umi-sen-ken.

The thing that really marked the difference was her anger. She kept an iron grip on her temper, and I only really saw it slip the one time I caused us to be delayed. Even then, it wasn't a raging beast quelled only by the application of violence, but more a snow woman demeanor that expressed vague disappointment.

The most striking difference was her ability to cook. It wasn't something she liked doing, but she hated my cooking more than she hated doing itself. After tasting one of her meals, I agreed with her. She cooked very well… probably as a result of having to raise Saffron.

Then came the time at the end of the two weeks when she could finally transform. I judged her healed well enough to finally risk the transformation, and she waited impatiently for me to heat the water. That day, near the end of our journey, she spent the entire time I was walking flying high above me looping in the air and banking at speeds I had trouble tracking, an impish smile on her face the entire time.

We arrived at the harbor, a small town just west of Hiroshima on a bright and sunny day, both of us wearing what was left of my clean clothes. Kiima had quickly declared that my white sleeveless shirt would be hers, having ditched her bloodied and torn tunic as unsalvageable. I was wearing my green outfit, complete with red-star hat on my head.

≈

It was pretty easy to find a boat within my price range, but the old man who owned the tourist bout didn't seem eager to take us on the trip out to the coast of China… and he was the only one at this village I could afford. I looked forlornly at the water, and considered the swim. It wouldn't be fun at all, just like last time. At least Kiima could fly, now.

"Please sir!" Kiima pleaded in a voice so high it was almost a falsetto, and I almost jumped as she latched onto my arm. I glanced, and I saw a look of intellectual vacancy on her face. "My boyfriend promised me he'd take me on a hike in some parts of China, but you're the only one who can take us before our vacation time is over! Pleeeeaaase?"

I swallowed a chuckle as the old guy's face softened, though I was still trying not to freak out about how Kiima was latched onto my arm. The way she was holding on to me made it feel like someone had shoved Shampoo's mind into Akane's body.

"Well, I suppose I could take you. These old bones could do with a trip. The fresh air and sun might do me some good, after all." He chuckled at the gasp from Kiima, and blushed as she spewed a torrent of "thank-yous" at him. He got up from where he sat, waving us on to the boat. "Let's get underway. You and your boyfriend can sit up front, and watch the waves.

"Alright, let's go Ranma!" Kiima squealed, dragging me onto the boat and up to the front. As soon as we were up front and the old guy was busy preparing his small cruise boat for the trip, her face fell back into that calculating look I'd grown accustomed to seeing. "Thank God, I hate acting like that."

Still, she maintained her death grip on my arm.

"What the heck was that?" I whispered, curious. I had a fairly good idea, but I wasn't sure why she did the whole squeaky voice and everything. It was almost like the sort of act I might have done when trying to get sweets out of a vendor.

"I'll be damned if I've got to walk another mile, Saotome. I don't know how you groundlings can stand it." I chuckled at this, and she shot me a dirty look.

"Not like we have much choice in the matter." I snorted, looking out over the waves. Thankfully we were moving fast enough that the water was being sprayed to either side of the boat, so my curse was in no danger of being activated yet. Eventually the boat began to zip along, probably going around sixty kilometers an hour.

"I'm serious." She added, and in the corner of my eye I could see her still watching me. She shifted her arms, and now she was just lightly clasping my arm as she stood to the right. "I don't know how you groundlings can walk like you do. My legs are burning from all the walking we've done."

"You'll probably get used to it." I grinned, still watching the ocean. My left hand grasped the rail by reflex as we hit a rough wave, and I looked down at the water sailing by underneath us. "This is definitely better than the first time I went to China. Me and the old man swam from the western tip of Hokkaido."

"Swam this ocean?" Kiima sputtered, and I chuckled as I remembered. That had only been a couple years ago, but already it felt like it was a lifetime away.

"Yeah, my old man called it training. Really, he probably blew the money on gambling or food. I didn't mind, though. Swimming this ocean, it was like I was fighting it. Every splash of my arms was a strike against it drowning me. Even when the storm hit, we continued to swim." I chuckled as I gestured to the water below with my free hand. "We didn't go this fast, though."

Kiima said nothing, finally turning to watch the ocean herself.

For the rest of the trip, aside from occasional comments about the passing scenery, Kiima said nothing. Late that evening, as we lay in the narrow bunks of the boat, I listened to the lapping water on the hull. Eventually, I drifted off.

The next morning, we hit the coast of China forty kilometers or so north of Shanghai. I paid the old man and we were off, swimming the kilometer or so to shore. Behind us, the old man and his boat left, heading back for his home port a day and a half away.

≈

"I can't believe how tired I feel!" Kiima grumbled, as I lit a small fire on the beach. We both needed a splash of hot water before we could continue our journey. She looked at the land around and I got the feeling she was welcoming herself back home, or maybe chronicling the distance we'd made to our goal.

"We can move fast now." I told her, focusing on the crackling flames and the slow heating of the water. I concentrated, and channeled my chi just so. With a leap that normally would have carried me barely ten feet into the air, I cleared four times that. I landed, and she was staring. "I've figured out enough of the technique that I can keep up with you flying. We'll move fast, and we can probably make it to Phoenix Mountain inside of a week. Then, we can deal with Herb and his goons."

"Ranma… Why are you so determined to help me?" Kiima finally asked the question. I'd been waiting for it. It made sense that she'd be curious, but I guess she'd waited until now out of fear I might back out and go home. Not that I would.

"I ain't good with words, but it's pretty simple. Because of me, your people aren't able to defend themselves. It's my fault Herb has the Kaisufuu, and the only reason he's attacking you guys is because I took out Saffron." I breathed out slowly, and made a conscious effort to look her in her face. Akane's face weighing my words and my actions, as passive and stony as the face of the strictest judge. "Way I see it because it's all my fault, I should fix things."

"I see." I didn't know if she did, but I didn't care. Things made sense to me, and that was all that mattered. I dipped a finger into the water, and determined that it was warm enough. Grabbing a cup and dunking it into the water, I changed back. "Uh, Saotome? We've got a problem."

"What is it?" I became immediately alert, and dropped into a loose stance. My aura surged forward, breaking through the dams I put up with little effort. I extended my senses, but aside from Kiima I couldn't feel anything. My concentration broke as I realized Kiima was laughing. I stood. "Hey, what's so funny?"

"Saotome, I meant that I just need to fix this shirt before I can wear it. It's not made for my wings." I couldn't help myself. I began to laugh. I laughed so hard I had to lean on my knees to hold myself up. Kiima laughed with me.

When we finally calmed down, she took the shirt off and grabbed one of my muscle shirts, wearing it backwards. This covered her chest pretty well, but the dip in the front left enough room that when she transformed, her wings posed no problems. "C'mon, Saotome. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

I answered her challenge by slinging my pack over my shoulders and bounding off, every leap carrying me forty or fifty feet as I bounced along the ground. Up above Kiima soared among the thermals, rising high into the sky as she pursued me.

≈

It took a little less than a week for us to get to the valley. Every night, we'd finally stop and I'd be exhausted beyond anything I'd felt since the day we'd been forced to stop. Keeping up with Kiima was a grueling task, taking all my concentration and energy. In sharp contrast to my own efforts, flying was as simple as strolling for Kiima. A light bone structure combined with a multitude of thermals in the bright summer sky meant she could spend the majority of her time in the air just cruising along the winds, watching me bound along the ground trying to keep up.

Often I was asleep before Kiima would finish dinner, and in the morning I'd devour whatever she put in front of me, cold or not. One day, the sky was cloudy and the thermals were few… and by the time we camped barely six hours after we'd started, it was Kiima who was tired. Her wings, resembling the wings of a hawk, were not designed for the constant flapping the lack of thermals called for.

It was a pleasant, if uneventful few days. On the one day the sky was cloudy there wasn't actually any rain, and every other day was bright and cloudless. We traveled quickly and lightly, and rarely stopped for breaks. This reckless speed made the distance between the coast and the interior almost negligible.

This cycle continued until she began to recognize the lands around us, and we knew we'd need to take care. Cautiously, with Kiima flitting barely above the tree line in a mode of movement resembling hops more than true flight, we arrived at Phoenix Mountain.

I was unprepared for what I saw. As we crested the final ridgeline between the vast plains surrounding the mountain, an army stretched out ahead of us. There must have been almost five thousand men sitting around camp fires, training, eating, or fixing their weapons. In the midst of the camp, a huge tent stood. Even at the great distance between us, I could recognize Herb as he moved among his followers, giving direction to them and bending to speak with a few. Beyond this army was Phoenix Mountain, our goal.

≈

"I've got a plan." I stated, grinning as everything fell into place. We'd caught rabbits earlier in the day, and the skins were hanging off to the side. "I can sneak into the Musk camp. With the rabbit pelts, they won't know anything is up. I'll steal the Kaisufuu and Chiisuiton, so that we can stop them using that stuff against your people."

"You're crazy. They'll figure you out." Kiima deadpanned, looking at the Musk camp below. She shook her head. "All the Musk animals are predators. They don't breed with prey, and a rabbit IS prey. Not to mention the fact that the army is small enough that you might get noticed as being an outsider."

"Hey, they won't know the difference if I don't leave any ears or nothing on the rabbit's skins. I'll move fast enough that nobody will really question me. I'm fast enough to escape most of these guys anyways. I'll just avoid Herb and his two goons." The plan was perfect, in my opinion. "You can go get that gate open so that when I come running, you can let me in."

"It's too dangerous." Kiima declared, crossing her arms. She glanced sharply up the ridge, over which the army lay camped. "All it would take is one person figuring out something was wrong. Surely the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu will be recognized, so getting out of the camp will be almost impossible even if you can steal them."

"Kiima… Your people need their flight back. I've seen you fight without your wings. You're pathetic." Her lips tightened and her eyes narrowed at this, but she didn't say anything. "If your people keep getting trapped, even if they win the fight they'll lose. All Herb has to do is hide the Kaisufuu, and any victory you might win would be useless."

"Saotome, are you sure about this?" Kiima asked, pointedly. She was no longer arguing with me, at least. I'd made my point. I nodded my assent. "Kiima, fly to your home. I've got some things to steal."

≈

As I walked through the Musk camp, my hair unbound and covered by the scraped hide of a rabbit, I felt nothing but nervous. I could have easily slipped past everyone using the Umi-sen-ken, but I'd promised to seal those techniques away and never use them again.

I was starting to regret that promise.

I got some curious looks, striding to the center of the camp, but I'd been ignored so far. If anyone asked any questions, I was probably going to be in for a fight. I couldn't even speak Chinese well enough to coherently lie. If I could even lie to them successfully in the first place.

When I got within a couple hundred feet of the center tent, I walked between two tents, disappearing from the main "road" splitting the wide lane I'd been walking. Carefully masking my chi, I began to sneak towards the main tent.

Guards patrolled, but the patrols were lax and inefficient. They weren't expecting trouble. Herb thought he had the people in that mountain defeated. He didn't expect them to attack, and it showed in the layout of his camp. In short, they weren't ready for war anymore, not really.

It was almost laughably easy to sneak right up to one of the walls of the large tent. Using a dagger borrowed from an empty tent, I cut a slit in the wall at the bottom of the tent and slid underneath.

Inside, the tent was quiet. By luck or maybe fate, I'd come right up on the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu. They were sitting right in front of me. I glanced around, and saw a leather sack. Both items went right into the sack, and I carefully lifted the slit I'd made at the bottom of the tent. I nearly flinched as another patrol walked by, but they didn't notice my footprints leading to the wall of the tent or the slit I'd made. As they walked away, I slipped back out of the tent, the sack on my shoulder.

Using nearby tents as cover, I snuck away from the tent. When I was a couple hundred feet away, I walked back onto one of the roads leading out from the center of the camp, the sack slung over my shoulder.

I was maybe two hundred feet from the edge of the camp when the alarm went up, spurring the camp into a storm of activity. Men grabbed their weapons and began to run about, looking for an intruder. Not wanting to appear out of place, I grabbed a nearby spear and began to run for the edge of camp.

"Hey, you!" I knew I'd been spotted as the intruder, so I abandoned caution. I hurled the spear in the direction of the soldier who'd spotted me, and with one mighty leap I cleared the edge of the camp and was bouncing towards Phoenix Mountain.

Behind me, patrols came hot on my heels. It was the work of minutes to outdistance them and lose them in the forests covering Mount Phoenix's initial slopes. As I continued up the mountain, I looked for any sign of Kiima or her people.

I didn't spot her, but she must have seen me running because moments later she dropped in beside me, flashing me a hopeful grin at the sack slung over my left shoulder. I returned the grin.

"This way, Saotome." She led me up the slopes, and eventually into a cave. A heavy steel door was built right into the walls of the cave, and it stood ajar. We hurried inside and some wingless soldiers pulled the door shut behind us. "Do you have them?"

"Of course. I'm the best, you know." I added, taking the rabbit skins off of myself. I sniffed, and shook my head. "Man, I need a nice hot bath."

"Well, thanks to your last visit you just might get it, Saotome." Kiima said. I didn't like the way she said might, and nor did I like the way she was refusing to meet my gaze. "First, we've got to convince the council not to throw you back out to the Musk."

Then, I remembered. In the weeks that led up to this moment, my arrival here, I'd almost forgotten the damage I'd done last time. Thanks to me these people were in this position in the first place. The thought sobered me immensely, and I just nodded to Kiima. She turned and led me up the many stairways of the mountain.

≈

"When you're in there, you're going to need to constantly remind them that you've come to help. You're going to need to remind them that you've brought them the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu, and that you've defeated Herb before." Kiima was now repeating herself for the third or fourth time. I guess she was nervous about my meeting with this council. With the way she was talking, I was starting to get nervous myself. "Point out that you don't have anything against us and that you bear us no ill will for anything that happened before."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, Kiima." I muttered, looking around at the fancy room the whiney little politician had stuffed us into. A large painting of Saffron as an adult adorned one wall, sitting on a perch of some kind and looking over people below with an expression I could only call serene. This painting stood above a large wooden liquor cabinet, which was filled with filled crystal bottles adorned in gold. Even the seats we were sitting on were trimmed in gold, and carpeting this thick was, I'd learned, a rare luxury for a people with talons on their feet.

I slouched further down into my low-backed chair, feeling more out of place as every moment passed. It was hard to get comfortable in a seat designed for people with wings, and the chair itself felt fragile. Across from me perched lightly in another chair and sipping at some amber liquid, Kiima watched me.

The plan was that Kiima would go talk to the council first, and then they'd bring me in afterwards. I still couldn't believe they were thinking about refusing my help.

"Lady Kiima?" I glanced up as Kiima's two cohorts poked their heads into the room. Masara and Koruma both reminded me of Hiroshi and Daisuke, kinda. They both shot me twin curious looks as they crossed to talk to Kiima. Masara continued to speak, ignoring me. "We'd heard you've just gotten back! Are you alright? You shouldn't have left without us!"

Interesting that Kiima would come to ask me for help on her own. Maybe she wasn't supposed to have come to me? I began to pay attention, while still gazing up at Saffron's serene face.

"Times are desperate, you two. We need every strong hand we can. Thanks to Saotome here, we now have a fighting chance." Kiima stood up and glared at them both. "I've heard you tried to follow me. I remember expressly forbidding you to do this. We'll talk about that later."

She glanced up as the stuffy politician returned, and simply nodded to him before he could even speak. "I want both of you to go back to your duties." Putting down the glass of liquor, she picked up the leather sack and handed it to them. "This contains two magical items known as the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu. Ranma retrieved these items from the Musk. The kettle is the Kaisufuu, and it will restore those of our fighters who've been trapped in their human forms. I want you two to personally distribute this cure and make sure that these items are put safely into my chambers afterwards."

Without another word, she left. With a glance towards me somewhere between curiosity and respect, Masara swung the leather sack over his shoulders and quickly left the room, followed by Koruma.

Left alone, I got to my feet and began to pace. What could I say to these people to make 'em believe me? How could I prove I wasn't the bad guy and that I could help them? The sooner I could do that, the sooner I could get back to Nerima. Back to the Dojo and back to Akane. I could explain things to her. Tell her that it was my responsibility to set things I'd made wrong right.

In the back of my mind, I hoped she'd listen. A nagging voice told me that she wouldn't. Not with me gone three weeks already, and probably not getting back for another month and a half. Maybe it'd take me even longer to set things right here.

"The council will speak with you now." I turned, and at the door the stuffy politician waited impatiently. I blinked, trying to figure out how much time had passed, how long Kiima had been pleading my case to this council for. With a shrug, I realized it didn't matter.

I strode to the door and followed him.

≈

Author's Notes:

Thanks to all the reviews I've gotten already. I had some free time this morning so despite the fact I've made no promise about the update schedule, you get a whole chapter of LH&R goodness less than twelve hours after the prologue went up.

Just to be clear, this will very likely not be the case in the future. Truth be told, I started the prologue over a month ago and only got the inclination to finish it last night. I suppose the updates will depend on the pace the story is setting. If I finish somewhere where I'm uncertain about how to continue, I might take a while. On the other hand, if I finish on a cliffhanger I might be inclined to continue writing the other half almost right away. Not only that, but it's damned difficult writing in the first person, but for this fic I feel it's necessary.

Anyways, cheers. And no, I'm not going to spoil the direction of the story by giving away the pairing. If you're the sort who can't read something without knowing how it ends, this is not the fic for you. I don't even know how it's going to end.

'til next time,

-Gaming Ikari


	3. Chapter 2

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Chapter 2

≈

I guess I should have expected the angry looks from these people. To them, I wasn't some savior. For all they knew, I was coming to mock them in their darkest hour. That kinda thing wasn't my style, but they didn't know that. They didn't know much about me, aside from the fact I'd stormed their home and killed their leader last time I was here.

Their current predicament was a direct result of that, so I couldn't help but feel that all the anger was justified. Still, I pressed on.

"You got no reason to trust me." An open statement, one made from the heart. That was always the best way to start a speech. That's what Nabiki always told me, anyways. "All you know about me is that I'm the reason Saffron wasn't here to help you. You have no reason to trust me. No reason to like me. Heck, if I were in your shoes, I'd feel the same."

I'd caught their attention. I guess they were expecting me to tell them to forget the past. I couldn't. I still remembered the fight with Saffron. It was something I never could forget even if I wanted to. I took a deep breath, and continued.

"Let's put all that aside for now, and let me put things in the most simple terms I can. It was Saffron's responsibility to protect you from your enemies and keep you, the Musk, and the Amazons in balance. He can't do that because of the fight I had with him. I'm willing to take up his responsibility and protect you people from the Musk. I've kicked Herb's ass before, and I can do it again. The Amazons out there ain't a problem… Their elder Cologne is someone I've fought before. I don't think she'd like them helping the Musk, and even if she did I could tell her to go away, and beat it into her with my fists if I have to. I only want to know if you'll let me take up this responsibility."

Kiima, off to the side, winced at my speech. I knew it wasn't anything special. In fact, it was probably horrible compared to whatever she'd said to these people before. I only knew how to speak what I thought, and I knew I'd have messed things up if I'd tried to get fancy. Fancy wasn't my style.

I spun around and walked back out of the room.

≈

Outside, I waited for the council's decision. Here they were, wounded and huddled inside their homes, all because their God was dead at my hands. Another painting of Saffron, standing at in front of a hostile army with a cocky grin on his face, adorned the hall outside the very council chamber where my fate was being decided. In that painting, he stood in front of a gate I recognized. The very gate Kiima had led me to on my first flight from the Musk. At the edges of the painting, one could make out the arrows already closing in on him.

He seemed not to care. It was almost like this army he was facing down was an insignificant speck beside his love for his people. I would take up his responsibility. He would have faced down this army, council's approval or not.

I'd do my best to help these people regardless of what they had to say to me, but it'd make my job a lot easier if they were willing to help. I wasn't certain that they'd let me, but I'd be damned if I turned my back on them, stubborn pride or not.

I owed them that much.

I waited in silence, picturing myself in Saffron's shoes. Grinning with a confidence I could feel welling inside me, nothing between helpless people and an army but myself.

Always protect the weak, boy. My father had some selective principals, but there were always times he would stick to them. I liked to think that this would have been one of those times. I wouldn't know, because he wasn't there to give me his advice. Advice I've always considered, even if I didn't follow it.

Angry shouting erupted from the solid oak doors. After a few moments, Kiima stormed out. "They can't do this to you!" In that moment, I knew I would be cast out. I could fight them. I could probably hold them off, injuring hundreds of their people before they forced me away from this mountain and into the jaws of the Musk army.

"Kiima, do you have a quarterstaff?" I asked, keeping my voice even. Maybe it was a Zen thing, but I was calm. I'd expected this. Maybe I even wanted this. This would be my big shot. Ranma Saotome fighting the entire Musk army, including Herb, Lime, and Mint. Big magic on their side, maybe a wooden stick on mine, if Kiima could come up with one.

"What, a quarterstaff?" She went rapidly from an uncharacteristic rage to confusion. Mercurial emotions, a trait she did share with Akane. Maybe those pools did effect people more than the Guide thought, or maybe I was so busy concentrating on how different from Akane she was that I'd never noticed the similarities before.

"Yeah, a quarterstaff. Since I've gotta do it alone, I think I'm going to need one. They're good for deflecting arrows and stuff. I think I'm going to need to do a lot of that if I'm going to get to Herb and take Saffron's toys from him." I don't think I've ever felt such effortless confidence. I felt like I could toss off a million Mouko Takabishas with enough chi left over to keep up with Kiima's fanciest flying. I was in the best form I've ever been.

"You can't go out there, Ranma! They'll kill you!" Kiima growled. She turned to march back into the council chamber. "It's my fault you're here. I won't send you out to face that army alone. I'll marshal my personal guard and we'll help you get free of this place."

"No, Kiima. You won't." I spat, grabbing her arm and spinning her back around to face me. Her eyes, so close to my own, were wild with anger and fear. Fear for me and anger at the council, or anger with me and fear for her people? I shrugged it off, flashing another grin at Kiima. "I'm going to face Herb now. I'm going to kick his ass just like I promised. Then I'm going to slap your damn council in the face with the Gekkaja and see if being frozen for a few months cools their pride off."

"You're really going to try, aren't you?" Kiima retorted, yanking her feather-light arm free of my grip. She took a step back, crossing her arms and shaking her head in disbelief. "You really think it's going to be that easy. That's an **army** out there, Saotome. You can't win against that."

"I won against Saffron, didn't I?" I retorted, and I could see that the fact it was truth and not just bravado stung her. I crossed my arms. "Get me a damned quarterstaff and then tell your people to get out of my way. In this, I stand alone. I won't have you waste your people trying to save my life. I can save it myself if I've gotta."

"You can get away. You can evade that army easily enough. We don't want your help, Saotome! This isn't your fight." Kiima tried, and I realized it was the truth. I still remembered the fear the general populace regarded me with as I marched up the mountain to these chambers. To them, I was a nightmare. Something they used to frighten little children. The devil that came from Japan and killed their God.

"Fine." The word sounded a lot like when Akane told me she was 'fine'. She was probably angry with me. I figured that in a few hours after I'd kicked Herb's ass, she'd get over it. Either that or it wouldn't matter to me anyhow. She stormed off, and I waited. Minutes later, she returned. "Take it, Saotome. I hope you've been nice to the Goddess of Luck, because you'll need her favor today."

"Nah, I don't need luck." I snorted, examining the quarterstaff she'd grabbed for me. Whoever had made the staff had taken great care. They'd selected the finest bamboo; bamboo which had matured just enough that the staff was strong, yet still supple. It had been treated with oils so that I could see my own reflection in the stem. I grinned, and gave it a practice whirl. Even the balance was as close to perfect as possible! "Thanks, Kiima."

"They've agreed to let you at least stay the night before setting out." The bird woman offered, and I shook my head. If I opened my mouth, I might accept the offer. I didn't want to give myself any reason to back out of my chosen course. "I see… Would like to at least have a bath and a clean change of clothes?"

"Yeah, I think so." I finally said, taking one more look at the painting of Saffron above the doorway of the council's chamber. It firmed my resolve. I smiled as I looked to Kiima. "I've gotta look my best while I embarrass that damned council of yours."

The truth was I just wanted to be clean. I hadn't had a bath since that swim in the ocean just north of Shanghai.

≈

In the end, I decided not to bother wearing any of my shirts. I pulled on a pair of blank pants, tying them snugly at the ankles. I slipped on some black slippers, and I was ready. I didn't want to wear my shirts into any fights any more. They were just going to get dirty and ripped up, and even as they were it'd be a difficult job for Kasumi to fix them properly when I got back to the dojo.

If I ever did get back.

I marched through the halls of Phoenix Mountain with that fine quarterstaff slung over my shoulder like a baseball bat, the people all giving me wide-eyed stares. Fear and awe colored their eyes, and I basked in it. For these people, huddled in their homes, I couldn't fail.

Ranma Saotome doesn't lose.

At my side and a little behind, Kiima escorted me out, flanked by Koruma and Masara. Kiima alone would have been more than enough, but she ordered them along with us. I didn't know why Koruma needed to have rope slung around his shoulders, but I put it to the back of my mind.

I needed to focus on the task at hand. In my mind's eye, I could already see myself charging that camp. I would be inside the camp before the alarm was raised, and I'd be at Herb's throat before his army could organize any sort of counter-offensive. Knowing Herb, he'd insist on fighting me one on one. His pride wouldn't let anything else stand, not after his defeat last time.

People were always telling me that my pride would be my downfall. I hoped they were wrong, but I also hoped that Herb's pride would be his.

We finally arrived at those impressive gates, and the guards there now had their wings back. I thought I saw respect warring with the fear in their eyes, but it was there and gone so fast I couldn't tell. They turned a large deadbolt, and pulled the door open.

Kiima was whispering to Koruma and Masara now, and I glanced back curiously as the guards slowly inched that thick door open enough for me to slip out. As I slipped out, those three followed.

"Hey-" I began, but was cut off by Kiima.

"You said we weren't allowed to fight with you. You didn't say anything about seeing you off." She flashed me a rare smile. "Koruma and Masara are here to make sure I'm safe. Last time I went out on my own I did get into a little bit of trouble."

"Fine, but stay out of my way and don't fly until I've started fighting them." I growled, and I darted into the forest. I had a fight to finish. Behind me, I heard the three Phoenix people break the canopy of the forest as they took to the skies.

≈

Sneaking up on the army was a slow and deliberate process. Their security was much improved over my last visit, but it was still relatively easy to sneak right up to the edge of the camp. Living with my father meant I didn't even need the Umi-sen-ken to deal with these clowns.

It was time. A dead sprint of nearly a kilometer to the central tent. To my target. I couldn't see him, but that'd be easy to deal with. He'd probably notice me before I got to him.

I screamed, letting my battle aura surge into being. I sprinted, and confusion reigned. Tents flew by in a blur and Herb emerged from his tent as the alarm sounded, the Gekkaja clenched in his left hand and the Kinjakan in his right. His eyes met mine even as I screamed out his name.

"Ranma!" He roared as I sailed into him, my quarterstaff clashing into the twin magical staves as he brought them in a double guard. I immediately brought my quarterstaff back and tried another strike, noting the burn on one end and the ice on another. The Kinjakan and the Gekkaja didn't work any faster than I remembered, thank Kami for small miracles.

Another strike, another block, and I sent Herb through the central pole holding his tent and then through the rear tent wall. I followed, his portable palace collapsing around me.

"I take it you were the one who stole the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu from my tents earlier today?" He asked, almost casually. His army gathered around us, their weapons ready but not actually sending anything our way. I merely grinned.

"Hey, not my fault your security sucks. That don't matter, Herb. This is between me and you." I brought the quarterstaff up in a guard position as he observed me.

"You've sided with those bird-people, then?" Herb demanded, almost casually. I saw him twitch his right hand, though. I wasn't surprised in the least when that Kinjakan's razor sharp ring sailed my way, and I merely shifted out of the way. It carved a narrow trench in the ground behind me, and another twitch of his hand jumped the disk out of the ground, high into the air. It latched onto the tip of the Kinjakan almost like a magnet, emitting no more than a slight click.

"Nah." I shrugged, regarding the trench behind me. He had better control of that staff than Saffron possessed when he was a kid, but Saffron's aim when he'd been an adult had been far better. "I'm here because I don't like your face."

His eyes narrowed, and his feet glowed as he began that flying technique of his. I matched him, and I saw surprise in his face. He chuckled, and we clashed again, bouncing all over the army's campsite like hyperactive ping pong balls.

He tried a strike first with the Kinjakan while we sailed over the remains of his tent, which I dodged. A follow up strike from the Gekkaja was blocked, sending me spinning in the air, out of control. He brought the Kinjakan back in a reverse strike, sending that ring flying towards me again. Even I couldn't dodge such a well-placed shot in mid-air, so I brought my quarterstaff up in a block.

The ring severed it cleanly, but desperately bringing the two severed halves inside the ring caused it to buzz inches from my face before I forced it up and over my shoulder. In continued on through a tent, before Herb called it back to that fiery staff with a click.

He was better than me, with those damned things in his hands. I looked at the two halves of a quarterstaff in my hands, still smoking at the ends from the heat of the Kinjakan's ring. I needed to get at least one of those things away from him.

"Mouko Takabisha!" I roared, concentrating my chi enough to send a burst at Herb. I quickly followed behind the blast, hiding myself in the blinding glare it produced. He deflected the blast with the Kinjakan, and his eyes widened as he saw me right inside his right guard.

"Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken revised, kali tornado!" I roared, bringing the severed halves of the quarterstaff to bear like kali sticks. Relentlessly slashing at his guard, I grinned as ice formed on the sticks as he brought the Gekkaja up to block, only to be melted by his subsequent blocks with the Kinjakan. His magical staves worked against each as I began to hammer through his awkward guard.

No martial artist, no matter how skilled, can wield two staves effectively versus an opponent in their guard. My strikes quickly overwhelmed his feeble defense and I struck him in the temple, stunning him. I dropped one half of the quarterstaff, grasping his left arm in my now free hand and using the remaining half of the quarterstaff to smack the Gekkaja spinning far away into the depths of the camp. A boosted jump separated us before he could retaliate, and I landed a short distance away.

"Hey, sorry 'bout that. Did I just take away your new toy, Herb?" He didn't respond, and rage took him now. He grabbed the Kinjakan in both hands and swung it towards me, the ring whirring through the air, a deadly musical instrument. I carefully eyed the ring and swung, striking the inside of the ring and deflecting it harmlessly. "You can do better than that! Or, are you too much of a girl to take me out? Want me to go get a doll for you while your army fights for you?"

If Herb was angry before, he was furious now. Last time, the Hiryu Shoten Ha failed because he knew it was coming. It failed because he was calm. Maybe it would work this time?

We fought, occasionally clashing and me being forced to dodge that deadly ring every time the distance was too great for him to try to brain me with the butt end of the staff. Every time, I noticed that I was getting the timing of that ring down better and better.

We were at the center of the spiral. This was almost too easy.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" My technique, but not my voice. As violent winds sent me towards the sky, I could only look at the victory written plain on Herb's face. He'd tricked me with the same technique again. "Don't you get it, Ranma? The technique is the counter to the Amazon's Hiryu Shoten Ha!"

And I did get it, finally. His version worked off the opponent's ice cold aura. The soul of ice only enhanced the effect. Clearly it was designed specifically as a counter to the normal Hiryu Shoten Ha, but that didn't stop it's effects from sending me flying into the air, clutching the half of the quarterstaff in my hand. He stood at the center of it all, calmly holding the Kinjakan.

"Now, die!" The ring spun towards me, and an idea emerged. I brought the quarterstaff piece through the ring as it closed on me, grasping the other end. The ring buzzed, but this time I didn't let it escape.

"I've got your ring, Herb! What are you going to do now?" I knew. The downside of his Hiryu Shoten Ha was that it left him in an almost mindless rage. He yanked back sharply on the staff, and brought me hurtling directly towards him with all the speed the magic possessed.

My feet kicked out behind me, and then I strained my abdominal muscles as I kicked my legs forward, building on the momentum the ring granted and sending myself flying towards Herb. My chi-charged foot slammed into his face, sending Herb flying from the tornado and ripping a furrow in the soil as he skidded away from me.

I would later call this move the "Ring Shooting Star Surprise", named after a somewhat similar move I'd used against Pansuto Tarou and his pantyhose.

I gently picked up the Kinjakan as the tornado winds ceased, and the Musk army greeted me.

"Yo, who's next?" I growled, looking from one Musk fighter to the next. They all nervously clutched their weapons, unsure of themselves. I knew that any minute now they'd try to swarm me under.

"Ranma!" I looked up, and reflexively caught the end of the rope Kiima tossed to me in my free hand. As she sped by, followed closely by Koruma and Masara, I realized their plan even as I jumped after them to diminish the jerk on the rope in their hands as they sped me away.

The Musk army shrank away as we flew back towards Phoenix Mountain. Perhaps Herb and his army had not yet been turned aside, but I'd dealt them a serious blow today. In my hands, the Kinjakan glittered. With this, maybe those idiots on the council would finally listen.

≈

Author's Notes:

Three updates within a twenty four hour period? This must be some kind of record.

But seriously, I do really mean it this time. This kind of update schedule will be exceedingly rare. This is a fluke, nothing more. I'm only tossing this up because it's a decent length and at nearly four thousand words, and thatlast isa good place to end this chapter. I probably won't be able to keep up this Oneshot-esque update schedule in the future.

It's all just fluke and happenstance which have come together to give me the time and inspiration to write this. I'd be playing my new copy of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones instead of writing this if my memory card hadn't died.

That said, please keep the reviews coming in. Don't expect another update for at least a week or two... Or maybe tomorrow, if I get inspired by something when I wake up. I'm not quite sure where I should go with this story at this point, but that fight between Herb and Ranma just demanded to be written.

'til next time:

-Gaming Ikari


	4. Chapter 3

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Chapter 3

≈

Quick Author's note: A "cast" is a word sometimes used by birdwatchers to refer to a flight of hawks or falcons.

≈

Walking back up through the halls of the Phoenix Mountain, flanked on one side by Kiima and on the other by Koruma and Masara, I couldn't help but notice a shift the people. To them, I'd left a few hours after I arrived. Now here I was, just a few more hours after I'd been banished, bringing back the Kinjakan to their lord from the jaws of an army which had them trapped.

In their eyes, I now saw respect.

It was with a feral grin that I strode through the doors of the council's chamber, the Kinjakan balanced on the muscles of my neck and held casually in my hands. I saw more than one face go white at the sight of me, at the sight of the staff balanced casually on my shoulders.

They'd sent me to die. In return, I brought them even more hope for the future. One of them stood, bowing to me.

"We thank you for this gift, groundling. We are still not certain we should allow you to remain with us." The audacity of this council was beginning to make me angry. What else did they want from me? Then I caught on to the word he'd used. I began to chuckle.

"Gift?" I roared, laughing. I continued to laugh, watching as they went from arrogance to confusion. I slung the staff from my shoulders, leveling it at the politician who'd spoken. "This is not a gift to you. I'm here to return this staff to it's rightful owner, on the condition that I be allowed to help."

"If we refuse?" The councilman asked, though I noticed his voice did shake. I grinned.

"If you refuse, I'll leave. I'll take this staff with me, though." I slung the staff onto my shoulders again, rocking back and forth on my feet. I looked around the council chambers, considering every one of these twelve bird men. They were hovering between anger and fear, all of them. "I didn't just steal this. Herb's gonna have a nice headache for the next few days. You really want to turn my help away after all of that? Do you want to go down to that army and take the Gekkaja back from him? Feel free to try, you old buzzard!"

I could tell this situation was about to spin out of control, but I didn't care anymore. I'd done all I could, but if they were going to continue to refuse my help I couldn't give it to them. I wouldn't continue to fight for them and receive no help in return. I couldn't save them without their help, and I wouldn't do it for people who couldn't even grasp the concept of basic gratitude.

"They won't be so foolish, this time." Kiima declared, stepping forward. I stood aside, keeping a reign on my temper and letting her speak. She gazed around the council chambers, looking at each member in turn. In her eyes, I read tightly controlled anger. "I am not the best, or most experienced Phoenix Commander in this mountain… but you all chose me to raise Saffron. You trusted my judgment in the past, I ask you to trust it now. I have seen this man fight, and I will swear by all I hold true that he is our only hope in this conflict. Saffron will not ascend for years, and without Ranma Saotome's help, we will be forced from our home in a matter of months."

She began to pace slowly around the council chamber, coming within a few feet of each council member. Every time, she seemed to bore into them with her eyes.

"Before Ranma Saotome came to our mountain this time, we were afraid to fight. We huddled in our caves, afraid to even visit the uppermost peaks to stretch our wings. Before Ranma Saotome came, our people were slowly losing their ability to fly to that accursed Musk water, which meant they lost their ability to fight. Even worse, they were losing the very hope that we would get through this conflict." She'd finished her circle and turned away from the council, now. Every eye was on her, including my own. She was making the sort of speech I wish I'd been able to make.

She looked at Koruma and Masara. "Inside of a day, the Musk army has been handed two defeats. Two defeats, where they have suffered none at our hands since the start of this war. First they lost their ability to trap us in our human forms while we gained the ability to reverse the effect. Second, they have lost the possession of the Kinjakan… and their very leader, the Dragon Prince himself, has been handed a bitter defeat in the seat of his power."

She turned back to the council, shaking her head. Now I was starting to get embarrassed. I hadn't done anything all that special, really. She was putting the entire hope of her people on my abilities, which I didn't think was accurate. I'd just kicked Herb's ass, that's all.

"It is thanks to Ranma Saotome and Ranma Saotome alone that all of these things happened. This man has come from his home, leaving behind a life of comfort and security to face down this foe with us. I love Saffron as much as any person in this mountain, and I'll swear to it that without Ranma we have no hope. This admission hurts my pride as a Phoenix Tribe member, as I too still remember the fight he had with our Lord." This caused some angry mutters, but Kiima pressed on. "He has said he bears us no ill will. In truth, for the rough treatment he has endured at our hands it is he who should bear us malice. He chooses not to, and asks for no reparations, only acceptance and aid in a war that is not his own and not of his making."

She turned to face me, and I was blushing… but I tried to hide it. I don't know how much I succeeded, but this was pretty embarrassing. I might take pride in my abilities, but she was making me out to be a better person than I was… and If she hadn't decided to follow with Koruma and Masara, I'd probably be dead by now.

"Ranma Saotome, I accept you." Somehow, Kiima made this simple statement sound much more grandiose than any of Kuno's speeches ever could be. She somehow made it sound like being allowed to say it was a privilege, not the compliment it was.

Slowly, the lead councilman stood. He turned a gaze to me, and in his eyes I could see… hope. His face seemed a lot softer, now. Maybe he wasn't feeling so stressed out.

"Ranma Saotome, can you help us?" It started with him, but soon the sentiment was echoed eleven more times by the rest of the council. To him, I nodded my assent as I walked back to the center of the room. I stood the center of attention, right where I liked to be. Standing in that chilly room, searching for the right words, I wished I'd gotten a shirt before I'd marched in here.

"I'm no general. I can't help plan your attacks or tell you where you need to strengthen up your defenses." I shrugged setting the Kinjakan on the ledge in front of me. "I'm a fighter, that's it. I can kick anyone's ass, but I'm not gonna be the savior that Kiima makes me out to be. It's gonna be your people that save themselves, in the end. I can talk all I want, but in the end I can really only deal with Herb. That army out there is a problem I can't beat up with my fists."

"We understand that, now." The council's head tried a smile, and for once it didn't look like it'd break his face. "We welcome you into our home, Ranma Saotome. We only ask one thing, please?"

"Sure, go for it." I said, grinning.

"Next time you decide to fight the Musk, feel free to bring along our army. They might keep you from having to fight the leader of the Musk more than once." It was a feeble attempt at humor, but I still chuckled.

"Hey, if I don't fight him a bunch of times, I'm not gonna learn all his tricks!" I countered, flashing him a grin. He looked surprised at my eagerness. "I'm gonna go grab some sleep."

I left, searching for a bed. It hadn't hit me until I realized I was to be allowed to stay, but I was exhausted. The fight with Herb and the earlier theft had taken a lot more out of me than I realized. Koruma nodded, and within minutes he and Masara had led me to a small oak doorway.

"You can rest here, Saotome." Masara said, opening the door for me. It swung open silently and inside I saw a small, if comfortably furnished room. Must have been for the upper class guests, I figured, given the plush carpeting on the floor and well-stocked liquor cabinet. It even had a small circular window, carved into the stone wall.

"Thanks guys." I nodded, looking around the room. No sign of my clothes, so I'd have to track them down later. Kiima might know something. I walked to the window as the two departed, shutting the door behind them.

Outside, I could make out the setting sun. In the distance stood the Musk camp, though it was too far away to make out individual figures. Even from here, I could see that the central tent was still down.

That thought comforted me as I lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Tomorrow would be another big day.

≈

"Do you know what it means to be a true warrior, boy?"

I always remembered that conversation with my father. It had been after we'd gotten back from China, after the fight with Saffron. I'd been full of my usual brash confidence, at first. I was still trying to forget the feel of that blood, hot and sticky as tar, splashing across my face.

"It means to be the best fighter there is!" I'd answered. Arrogant. Full of bravado. I don't think at the time I was paying attention to what he was really saying.

"No, boy!" He'd said, and at first I thought he'd start wailing about how useless I was. Instead, his eyes had gotten a faraway look to them. He was in one of his few somber moods. "A true warrior is one who fights to protect those who need to be protected, at all costs. You've done that and I'm proud of you, boy."

"You're proud of me?" I'd asked, and he nodded. I never understood that. I don't think I do, yet.

≈

I was woken by a rough shaking. I yawned, sitting up in my bed. I hadn't even bothered to crawl under the blankets, my mind so busy as I lay in my room that I hadn't even noticed myself falling asleep.

"Hey, Kiima." I greeted, accepting a cup as she handed it to me. I sniffed, and realized it was some sort of fruit drink. I gulped the sweet liquid down, and wiped a stray droplet from my chin as I took in the angle of the sun through my window. It was still early in the morning, I judged. Still, I'd been asleep a long time.

As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I took in Kiima's lack of voice and the set of her jaw. Something was up. I set the cup to the side as I got out of bed.

"What's up?" I asked her, banishing the sleep as concern overrode the last of my dreams, still dancing at the edge of consciousness. Whatever it was, it had to be big for her to be so serious.

"We've lost contact with one of our larger patrols to the north." Kiima said. I had a feeling it was a lot more serious than she was letting on, so I nodded for her to continue. "I'm leading a Cast north to look for some sign of them, and I'd like you to come along."

"Yeah, sure. I just need to find my shirts." I said, looking around the room as if they'd be there. They weren't, but sitting at the edge of my bed was a sleeveless white tunic, laced up at the face I could see and sporting wide rolled collar. "Or, that shirt you've brought me will have to work."

I slipped it on, lacings to the front, and pulled them tight. Kiima began to chuckle.

"Hey, what's so funny?" I demanded, looking down at the tunic. Looked normal from my end of things.

"You have that shirt on backwards." She told me, still laughing to herself. I stubbornly finished tying the laces and the front and stood up, facing her.

"Hey, I tie my shirts up at the front." I countered, gesturing to her wings. "I don't need to tie them around any wings."

"You have a point." She admitted, her laughter finally stopping. Her face grew serious, and the moment had passed. She gestured for me to follow, and we talked as she led me through the many passageways of the mountain. "We'll be leaving from an entrance on the north-east face of the mountain. My Cast will follow me in a terrain-following flight along the valleys until we get to the last site where we'd heard from the patrol. I want you to scout ahead of us, please."

"Sure, not a problem." It'd be an easy job for me, since I knew that my speed through the trees would be much quicker than Kiima and her group could go, without the aid of the thermals they normally used for flight.

Eventually we joined up with her Cast, a group of bird people which included Koruma and Masara. Each of those two led twelve warriors, all armed with three or for javelins each and short swords or small bows. They fell into place silently as Kiima led us down yet another tunnel.

As she did, I marveled at the fact I'd been able to find my way around on my first visit. There were literally hundreds of different tunnels in this place, each connecting to different tunnels at odd angles. Without a window to give me reference I had no idea which way we were headed, but these tunnels proved to be no impediment to Kiima.

"All of you know the plan." Kiima said, leading us out into the sunlight after a long walk. She pointed to the north, to a break in the ridgeline. "We'll be heading for that pass, and from there we'll turn to the north-east. Keep it below the canopy of the forest so that we're not presenting targets to any of the Musk lurking in the area."

Without another word she took off, flapping her wings once to aid a leap to a branch scarcely twenty feet from the canopy of the ancient forest surrounding Phoenix Mountain. Koruma and Masara quickly followed, and soon I was the only one left.

I chuckled, racing along the forest floor and rapidly outdistancing Kiima and her people. As I flew through the forest, I hoped we'd see some action. I still had some aggression to work out on the Musk.

≈

Three hours later I came to regret that hope, as I came across the remains of the patrol we'd been sent out to find, still ahead of Kiima and her Cast of soldiers. Dead bodies littered the scene of a minor battle. In total, I counted twenty six dead Phoenix, and almost half as many of the Musk at eleven fur-wearing bodies.

Even as I was overcome by the horror of what I saw, my mind worked out the details of the attack. From the position of some of the bodies, it was evident that they'd been ambushed as they made their way through the less dense forest that was common this far north. They'd been heading back to Phoenix Mountain, from the direction of the skid marks trailing the bodies.

The majority of the bodies were sixty or seventy feet south of the initial ambush, the signs of a pitched battle being fought. Here and there a broken arrow told the story. The Musk had ambushed with bows and almost before the Phoenix could finish their first pass at the enemy, they'd been wiped out as a fighting force. Further away from the main battle, two Phoenix bodies finished the tale, showing that the few survivors of that disastrous pass had tried to flee south to their home.

I walked around, taking in all the details. There was so much blood. I didn't know if I'd expected this. I'd heard the word war, and dismissed it. I didn't figure it would be this bad. Visions of glory were dashed as the cold truth of it all came crashing down on me.

This was all my fault. If I hadn't killed Saffron, this war never would have happened. If I'd finished off or captured Herb when I fought him yesterday, this would all be over. The blood of these people was on my hands.

It was then that I noticed something. I mentally recounted the figures, and realized that if a Cast was twenty seven, then the Musk had a prisoner. Kiima flapped down beside me as I saw the Musk trail, leading east.

"Ranma, are you-" She began, but she stopped when she saw my face. It wasn't until she arrived that I realized I was actually shaking with anger. She turned away, looking at the battlefield.

"One of your people is still alive." I growled, my eyes focusing on that Musk trail. I could almost smell their heavy scent. I looked back to her, and flashed a grim smile. "I'll get that person back. No matter what!"

I was out of earshot before she could say anything more than sputtered protest.

≈

It took me over an hour to catch up with the remains of the Musk patrol, and by this point they'd finally struck camp. Already, they were celebrating their victory with drink, if the few passed out were an indication. There were a lot of them, at least fifty or sixty. Maybe a few more. No wonder the Phoenix Cast they'd killed had been wiped out so quickly. They'd been outnumbered over two to one, with surprise against them.

There. Near the center of the camp, a Phoenix woman was trapped in a cage so small she was forced to double up. I could see that her wings were broken, even from here. A Musk wearing a Lion's pelt walked up to the cage, removing the top.

The Phoenix woman tried to fight him off, but with a laugh he slapped her in the face and grabbed her hair, hauling her out of the cage. He gave her another smack in the face with his free hand, and tossed her away.

"Get to you feet, toy!" My Chinese has always been spotty, at best. Here and there, I'd pick up a phrase or learn a word. I still knew that he was going to do something bad. The knife he'd suddenly drawn was an indication more strong than any words he might say.

I acted, my intentions fueled by emotion and not by rational thought. Sailing directly into the center of the camp, I delivered a double-kick to the man's chest. Underneath my feet, I barely noticed the crunch. He flew back, landing in one of the three fires. He didn't struggle to get out, but this alerted the four Musk surrounding that fire.

I closed the distance, deciding to worry about the Phoenix woman later. This would only take a moment. I was among them before they even stood, and sharp blows broke bones and knocked them unconscious. Flowing around the still tumbling body of one of those four Musk, I closed on a larger group of twenty or so.

This larger group took me a full two seconds, Amaguriken-fueled strikes rendering many more out of the fight. The other half of the camp was starting to draw weapons.

"Mouko Takabisha!" A blast took care of the last trio on my side of the camp, and before the blast had struck I was sailing over the Phoenix woman to fight the remainder of the camp. I wordlessly screamed as I fought through them, working out my rage on them. One Musk who dared to block one of my strikes would never walk right again, as I broke his leg in three places for opposing me.

The last Musk dropped, his face a bloody mess as he howled. My breathing began to slow, and I looked over the remains of the patrol. I hadn't killed any of them, but many were more injured beyond anything I'd inflicted on my foes before. A few sported injuries that would follow them for the rest of their lives. Not a single one of the furred men rose to oppose me.

Eight seconds.

I moved to the Phoenix woman, who was observing me with some fright. I tried a small smile, and this did seem to reassure her somewhat.

"My name is Ranma-" I began, and then she began to claw her way back through the dirt. I cursed myself for my stupidity, and followed her. I should have realized that she wouldn't have been back home for a few days. I should have realized she wouldn't know that I was any different from these Musk. "Hey, don't hurt yourself! I'm here to help! Kiima's Cast ain't that far away! We can get you back to Phoenix Mountain soon!"

"Kiima?" She asked, her light voice frail. I winced when I noticed the untended cuts on her body; though I was thankful none of them appeared to be serious. "You are here with Lady Kiima?"

"Yeah," I nodded. I looked around, and noticed that a couple of the Musk were still gripping consciousness. I looked back to the Phoenix woman, and knelt by her side. "Look, we've gotta get out of here. If the Musk wake up, you might get hurt."

She nodded, and I carefully lifted her up, cradling her light form to my chest. She couldn't have weighed more than ninety pounds, and I think she was probably taller than me.

"Hey, what's your name?" I asked, trying to be friendly. I ignored the moans of the Musk. She looked almost hesitant to answer the question, and I wasn't sure if she feared me more than she feared the men I'd saved her from. Finally, she answered.

"My name is Suzu." She admitted, and I smiled. This seemed to put her at ease more than anything else.

"Well, Suzu… Let's get you somewhere safe." Without another word to her I was off, leaving the remains of the Musk patrol in my wake. I needed to get back to Kiima's Cast so that we could be back before dark.

≈

After an hour and a half of bouncing through the trees, I came back upon Kiima and the rest of her Cast hiding maybe a kilometer or so east of battle site. They must have cleaned up what they could, done what they could for their people. They were here, waiting for me to return from a reckless rescue mission.

The anger evident on Kiima's face melted as I came into view and her eyes fell on Suzu's form. Somewhere along the way she'd lapsed into a deep sleep, though her breathing was easy and regular. She alighted beside me, looking over Suzu's wounds.

"Ranma, don't do that again." Kiima said, in a voice resembling a growl more than the stern lectures I would have expected. Her eyes met mine, and behind those purple irises of hers I could see a mixture of many different emotions. One clawed hand gestured to the west, to the direction of the ambush. "According to what we could find, there were over forty Musk holding Suzu captive. You shouldn't have gone alone."

"There were sixty three." I said, flashing her a grim smile. Her anger dropped, but her eyes were still wild with emotion, even if she didn't give any outward signs of it. "They won't be getting back to Herb's forces any time soon. It only took me eight seconds. Maybe I should go fight Herb's army for ten minutes and let them figure out how badly I've got 'em outclassed."

Kiima stared at my eyes for a moment longer, before her gaze dropped to Suzu, sleeping calmly in my arms. Finally she gave a chuckle, shaking her head.

"I expected better from you, Saotome. Eight seconds for sixty or so Musk? You're getting sloppy." Kiima grinned at me, and I returned it. We'd have a conversation about what I'd done later, when we had the time, but I knew I was forgiven for it right now. She turned to the Cast, and they began to prepare even before she gave the order to move out. "Let's travel quickly, people. We only have a couple hours before sunset. I'd like to be back before then."

We swiftly made our way back to Phoenix Mountain, one soldier heavier. I wouldn't have had things any other way.

≈

When we got back, Kiima was still in full military commander swing. She had Koruma and Masara take Suzu to the doctor, to see if her wings could be salvaged. The rest of the Cast was dispersed until they would be sent out again, though I get the impression they were glad the mission had been so short.

It was only then that she turned her attention back to me.

"What should I do with you, Saotome?" Kiima asked, regarding me. No emotion behind those eyes now, just a calculating look I'd seen mirrored on Nabiki's face hundreds of times before. I nervously swallowed. "On the one hand you took off and left me with the choice of waiting for you in potentially hostile territory, but on the other hand… You brought that girl back to us from the hands of a Musk group I'd have been hard-pressed to fight with my Cast."

She took a step towards me, and I willed myself not to move as she came almost nose to nose with me. At this distance, I could smell the slightly sweet smell of the late summer leaves on her. In her wings, tucked behind her back, I could see the occasional twig or leaf caught in her feathers from her constant movement through the forest canopy. Moving my eyes to meet hers, I could see that those calculating purple eyes of hers were flecked here and there with a blue more intense than my own.

"Training."

"Gwuh?" I replied intelligently to her statement, and she grinned as she stepped back, gesturing to me with one hand.

"You need to be trained to work as part of a team, and I think I'd like you to train with my Cast so that they can improve their own combat skills." With a grin, she expanded on her statement. One hand came to her chin as she observed me. "This will be your punishment for worrying me like that."

"Hey, wait! Punishment?" I demanded, as she turned and walked away. I followed after her, pulling up beside her. "You can't punish me for nothing! I brought that chick back safely, didn't I?"

"Better get some rest tonight, Saotome." She said, tilting her head to look at me as we walked, and I groaned. "It's going to be an early morning tomorrow."

It was always training, with me. I mentally shrugged it off as she walked me back to my room in silence. I guess she did have a point. Her Cast could have gotten in trouble waiting around for me like that. On the same note, they wouldn't have been able to help me. Not that I'd need it, but they might be able to make my job easier.

Thinking back to the fight today, I realized why I'd need to learn teamwork. If those Musk hadn't been so surprised, they might have been able to get to their bows. If a single one of them had got lucky (not that it'd happen) I could have been hurt, or worse.

And if I'd been away from Phoenix Mountain and needed to sleep, who'd watch over me if I was alone?

I was so caught up in thought that I didn't notice I was at my room until I'd arrived. Outside the room, a covered tray sat on a small table just to the left of my door.

"Ranma, despite what I've said, you did well today." I looked at Kiima in surprise, she was speaking those words so softly. There was a really strange look on her face, as soft as her words… but the softness was gone before I could read it. "Sleep well."

With that she was gone. I shrugged my shoulders, picking up the tray. Inside was a steaming plate of… fresh vegetables. Of course the bird people wouldn't eat any meat, I sighed. While I'd been traveling with Kiima, I'd hoped that her vegetarian eating habits had been a personal choice… and this morning's rice had been an afterthought, really.

Food was going to suck around here, unless I did my hunting myself. Grabbing the pair of chopsticks, I dug in. At least it was filling.

≈

Author's Notes:

Here I am, updating at 1:26 am with a full work day tomorrow. A workday that begins at 8:00 sharp, I might add. I wish I could get on a roll like this with my non-fanfiction writing… What is this, fourteen or fifteen thousand words in the last two days, now?

Thanks to the people who've reviewed and the two hundred and fifty or so people who've seen fit to read all the way through to Chapter 2 so far, this one's for you guys. I'm also not going to make any dire warnings about how slow I can be.

This tale's gripped me hard, and at this rate the whole thing will be done and finished before it leaves the first page of the story listings.

Off for now,

-Gaming Ikari


	5. Chapter 4

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Chapter 4

≈

"Rise and shine, Saotome!" In the midst of a nice dream involving me, a huge pile of food, and my old man tied up, I was awoken by a pail of water... Which was at least lukewarm, if still wet. I sputtered out protests as I sat up, my eyes not wanting to open even.

It was Kiima, of course. Either those pools did have a bigger effect on people than anyone let on, or she really was a lot like Akane. Both of them got entirely too much fun outta waking me up with water. I rolled out of the soaking wet bet, discarding the blankets as I moved to my pants, hanging from a chair.

"Hey, you're naked!" Now Kiima was the one blushing, and she'd turned around before my mind had even processed the statement. Oh yeah, I remembered now. I didn't have any clean underwear on me when I'd taken that last bath before the fight with Herb, so I'd put on my trousers without anything underneath. When I'd fallen asleep that night my mind had been racing, so I didn't even climb under the covers.

As my mind caught up with these events, I realized I was naked in the same room as a chick. Apologies dropped from my lips faster than I could speak coherently as I pulled on my pants. When I was finished tying them at the top, I could see Kiima shaking with laughter.

"Is it safe to turn around, Saotome?" She drawled, and again she reminded me of Nabiki.

"Yeah, yeah…" I muttered, searching for my new tunic. It was gone, but there was a clean grey tunic of the same make. I pulled it over my head and laced it up while Kiima watched me. As I was tying the last lace, I glanced at her. "Anyone heard anything about my shirts, yet?"

"I still haven't heard a thing." She shook her head, a brief smile playing across her face. She was probably holding on to them just for the sight of me walking through the halls with my shirt on backwards. I stubbornly said nothing as I finished tying my tunic, and her smile waned. "Let's go, Saotome. We'll go eat breakfast, and then I can start training you with my Cast."

≈

After another meal of nothing but greens, we arrived at the training grounds buried in the depths of the mountain… a huge cavern, over five hundred feet wide in a roughly circular shape, and nearly two hundred feet high. Here and there on the ground, younger Phoenix Tribe members moved covers from volcanic tubes, releasing steaming air into the cave. This resulted in naturally shifting thermals for the warriors to train with. In one section I noticed hundreds of ropes crisscrossed between stalagmites and stalactites, continuing up to the ceiling and down to the floor. Flyers dodged and weaved, predicting the reactions of the thermals and darting effortlessly between the many obstacles in an aerial ballet that left me breathless.

True flight, the dream of the Saotome branch of Anything Goes.

"That's where we'll be training, today." Kiima said, grinning as she followed my line of vision. She took to the skies, catching a newly released thermal to send her flying high into the sky as she angled herself towards the roped-off area. The rest of the Cast followed and I was forced to bound between jets of steam along the ground.

Kiima and her group landed on a raised stone platform halfway up the cavern, and with a single enhanced leap I joined them. Kiima was watching the field, and I noted that it was being cleared.

"Saotome, you're about to learn something about teamwork. First, by observing it in action against you. " Kiima said, turning sharply to me. She gestured to the ropes. "I'm going to have my Cast try to take you down. Non-lethal attacks of course, but they won't hold back. You will do them the same courtesy. "

"If you're sure." I said with a shrug, not convinced. Twenty seven of her soldiers versus me? This would way too easy. I leaped among the ropes, balancing on a rope roughly in the center, halfway up. She signaled and her Cast flew, some circling around to approach me from the rear. It looked like they'd come at me all at once.

It was then that the tension in the rope I was standing on was cut… along with a number of the ropes beneath me. "What the hell?"

The full genius of Kiima's plan became evident as four of her soldiers, including Koruma, swooped in to attack me while I had no leverage. Koruma was far ahead of the other three, and he drew a wooden sword to strike me. As I flipped in the air to face him, he flared away from me, throwing me off balance. Behind me, a whisper of air announced something stabbing at my back. My hand snaked in and grabbed it, and I used the unfortunate soldier's spear to propel myself to some nearby ropes.

Before I could even get close all the ropes in my area dropped, leaving me to hit the side of a stalactite. I hung there for an instant, almost defying gravity as I considered my options. I almost shattered the base of the stalactite, but decided that that kinda tactic was only for real fights. I considered my enemy. Fully half of the Cast was flitting about, observing me and looking for where I might be headed so they could rob me of any chance at footing. The rest waited for me to make a move so they could counter it.

I took all this in at a glance and before my momentum could fail me and bring me back towards the ground, I launched myself towards another stalactite. As I expected, the ropes between me and my target fell. More soldiers came in including Kiima herself, wielding a practice blade.

I twisted my body in the air, snaking around her strike but unable to deliver an effective counterblow as I deflected two blunted javelins. The follow up by Masara came to fast for me to dodge, and I let out a grunt as a blunted arrow slammed into my stomach. Kiima and her team backed off, allowing my feet to finally touch one of the ropes.

The match was over. Kiima glided down, landing on the rope near me so lightly I only felt the barest of a tremor. She had a neutral look on her face, watching me. I was going through the battle again, in my mind.

The circumstances had certainly favored Kiima and her Cast. On the ground, it could have been a completely different fight… but that hadn't been the point of the fight, I now realized. The point had been to illustrate that working together they were far more powerful than they were on their own, and one fact far more important.

It showed me my own vulnerability. I didn't want to admit it, but if Masara had used a real arrow I'd be dead.

"Do you understand now, Saotome?" Kiima asked, and I nodded. She'd made her point, but that didn't stop me from grinning.

"Hey, I've gotta teach your people now." I said, gesturing to the flatter parts of the training cave. I grinned, cracking my neck. It was time to repay the favor. "And have 'em switch to their human forms."

"Why their human forms?" Kiima wondered, though I think she did realize what I was about to do. She just didn't like the concept, and I didn't blame her. I did want to pay these people back… and there was no better opportunity than training them.

"If they can't fight in their human forms, they ain't any good in this fight with the Musk. You can't always depend on good weather." I gestured to her people, perched all around me. "How long would they have lasted against me if they'd been changed mid-fight? Could they have pressed on, ignoring their disadvantage and continuing their strategy of keeping my footing from me? Or would they have panicked and folded, allowing me to take a win from them?"

"No, they could not have continued." Kiima admitted, and I nodded to the Cast. They calmly watched the conversation between their leader and me, waiting for their orders. Well trained, but narrowly so. They couldn't operate outside of their normal fighting conditions… and that was almost as dangerous as being an amateur.

It was a weakness I'd noted in the very first fight I'd had with Koruma and Masara, way back when I'd first discovered that these bird people were real. They'd retreated from me even before we'd really fought, leaving both Plum and the Jusenkyo Map in my hands. If they'd pressed me, if they'd had their ability to fight in that random rain shower, they might have succeeded in taking Plum back.

"It might be that they'll only fight in their human forms one in a hundred times." Maybe even less, if they were mostly fighting underneath the forest canopy and inside the mountain. It didn't really matter to me, because the possibility remained to them. I observed them all, and I think my grin was beginning to unnerve some of them. "I want them to be able to lose their wings, and still fight. Their wings are a tool, not a necessity. If they can be lost through an injury or curse, then they should know how to fight without them."

"How long will that take?" Kiima asked, and then she noticed my grin. The way her wings drooped as she saw the look on my face, I think I was beginning to unnerve her, too.

"As long as it takes." My answer was cryptic and didn't really have any meaning behind it. It was the sort of answer my old man would have given me. I think I was finally beginning to understand his training methods.

≈

'As long as it takes' wound up taking roughly five hours of hard training, before I was even starting to be satisfied. After an hour or two of getting them adjusted to the idea of basic footwork on the flats, we ventured back to the suspended ropes and I had them try to repeat their fight against me from earlier… In their human forms, this time.

It took them hours to get back to the point where they could even begin to press me and a lot of them were nervous about falling at first, used to using their wings to balance themselves and slow their falls, or even change direction mid jump. More than one student leaped in pursuit of me, forgetting he or she didn't have their wings, and would fall a small distance before catching themselves on a lower rope.

Thankfully they were all experienced warriors, so picking up the finer points of fighting in their human forms was more like fighting using a different attack method than learning completely new fighting forms. They all improved at a rate that impressed even me, and before too much time had gone by they were after me with almost as much skill as they possessed naturally, barely touching the ropes as they pursued me.

Watching Kiima leap about in Akane's body was weird. Where my tomboy fiancé would have been clumsy, Kiima transcended the idea of graceful, scarcely touching the ropes to change direction. She was a natural leader, I noticed, as I watched her try to execute a clever box trap on me… three of her Cast closing in from above, while others closed in from behind and below.

I let her almost get me, and then at the last second used a rope one of the Cast had been just a second too slow in cutting to launch myself away. In Kiima's brown eyes I didn't see anger as she fell to the lower ropes in the training area, only determination to make the next trap work. She didn't take out her anger on those under her command, only redoubled their efforts with more plans and tactics.

After punishing them with this game of cat and mouse for another three hours, enough to make sure they were all comfortable in their bodies, I finally called a halt. We gathered on the stone platform, being curiously observed by other Phoenix in the area.

"You've all done well." I told them, looking into their faces. All of them were breathing hard and lathered in sweat, but there was a fierce determination in their eyes now. They now realized the limits those who didn't have wings would face, and could apply this to their fights in the future, be it as a 'groundling' themselves or against the Musk. "You may not realize it yet, but the last eight hours might be some of the most important training you'll ever get. Part of knowing how to fight is knowing what your opponent can do, and now you all know exactly what it's like."

I nodded to Kiima, still wearing Akane's face, and she turned to her troops. A sly grin was on her face.

"I am proud of all of you, as well." She said, casting a sly look my way. What was she up to? "Carry the memories of this day well, for today you have been one of the few to defeat Ranma Saotome!"

My protest to this was lost in the cheers they gave, though I realized it didn't really matter. Such a huge boost to their egos would help their confidence in future fights, but I knew it didn't count. Not really. If I'd known what they were up to, I coulda countered it easily.

Next time anyone tried it on me I'd be prepared. It'd be pretty simple to use the various stalactites and stalagmites to rebound quickly using Herb's technique, and if it were a serious fight I could bring a couple of the stalactites down with some chi-enhanced punches like I'd been tempted to… This would eventually drop one of them horizontally on the ropes and give me a safe surface to land on.

I was so involved in working out the finer details of such a defense that I didn't notice that the Cast had been dispersed, and Kiima still in Akane's form was waving a hand in front of my face.

"Pay attention, Saotome." I almost chuckled, hearing such a stern tone in Akane's voice. I looked and she was waiting for me near the edge of the platform. "Let's go grab something to eat."

Aside from a brief break for some rice while we moved back to the roped off area of the training field, I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast... and now that the fights were over, I realized I was starving. I eagerly followed Kiima to the mess hall.

≈

I began to realize just how much I was missing Kasumi's meals when I felt happy to see beans on the menu. I loaded my plate with beans and rice, ignoring the salads and fruits entirely. I knew I'd be getting more anyways. I walked over to the table where Kiima was seated, taking the spot across the table from her. Her purple eyes, only minutes before the honey brown of another girl, took me in intently as I began to eat my meal.

"The training went well today." I looked up, trying to read her expression while I thought about her question. Yeah, it had gone pretty good today. Her cast, initially hesitant to use their human forms, quickly adapted to the strategies the lack of wings required.

"Yep." I nodded, and continued to eat. It was a pretty simple answer, really. The training had gone well because her people were good learners. Not as good as me, nobody was, but they were pretty good.

"I've never gotten the chance to thank you for coming." Kiima said, and I involuntarily winced. I still hadn't told her about exactly how I'd left the Tendou's home. In fact, I'd avoided the question entirely up until now. I was trying not to think about what would happen after I was finished here at Phoenix Mountain. There was always the possibility that I wasn't going to be allowed back, this time. I'd already been gone for nearly a month.

My hesitation was beginning to get to Kiima, so I swallowed what I was chewing on and spoke.

"Nah, it ain't a problem." I grinned, trying to deflect the conversation. I gestured around, taking in the entire room. "This is the third or fourth time I've been in China for something. A little while back I had to fight Kirin and his crew. Now that was a tough battle!"

"The Seven Lucky Gods school... We'd heard that there was some major disaster in that area, but we didn't know it was you." Kiima acknowledged, though her eyes were now practically glowing with thought. She must have figured something out, I guess. I pressed on.

"Yeah. Kirin was the toughest, though. It began with him kidnapping Akane. That's usually how those kinda fights happen." I grinned, and Kiima did blush. Maybe I could make her forget she was going to ask me any questions. "Me and a few other people from Nerima came hot on their heels, with his true fiance in tow. In the end, it came down to me and him. That always seems to happen, too."

Again she nodded, though now she was being drawn into the story. I paused, savoring the taste of my meal as I tried to put to words the intensity of my fight in that final pagoda, versus Kirin.

"I was in my girl form, for the added speed. My Amaguriken technique just wasn't being fast enough versus that chopstick defense of his. Truth was, I still wasn't fast enough when I changed back to a girl." I looked down into my rice, waiting for the question. Everybody always asked it.

"Then, how did you win?" The question, and it always came down to me. Of course. I grinned, gesturing to the glass in front of me.

"It was pretty easy, once I put a few things together. I noticed that Kirin was used to deflecting fists and stuff so I decided to try giving him something else to block, something he couldn't deal with. I shattered the floor, flooding the place with water from the hot spring underneath the pagoda." I gestured to myself as I munched on another chopsticks-worth of rice and beans. "This changed me back to a guy, and I was slower than I was as a girl."

"But… There was something chopsticks couldn't block." I dipped my chopsticks into the water, letting them rest for a moment. "I used my speed punch to start slapping small balls of water at him." I drew my chopsticks out of the water for emphasis, throwing little more than a splash up. I leaned back, ignoring my food for the moment. "His defense, so automatic to him that he didn't even need to think about it, couldn't catch a ball of water. He'd just grab the top and bottom of the ball of water, spraying a few droplets."

"You beat up Kirin, Lord of the South… with warm water?" Kiima's face was red, and I could see her trying to hold down her laughter. I grinned, suddenly remembering the way I'd left that Pagoda. Maybe Kirin would help? I'd have to see if the Phoenix could spare a messenger.

"Yeah. Eventually, it all got sorted out." I began to dig into my food again, savoring the spices in the beans. The rice and the beans were the most filling thing I'd had since I got here. I shook my head, remembering all my battles. "Hard to believe someone as young as me gets in this much trouble. Stupid old man…"

"You can't be that young, Saotome." Did Kiima's tone change? It sounded like the laughter had been leeched from her voice, and the smile on her face almost looked frozen. I addressed her question with a smirk.

"Ha, I ain't even eighteen years old yet!" My voice was triumphant, like I'd won some fight. Looking into Kiima's eyes, I saw she'd gone serious. There was no more smile, no more mirth. "What, why does it surprise you?"

"You're just an eyass…" Was that shock on Kiima's face? What the hell was an eyass anyways? I voiced my question, and she answered automatically, her voice going more and more shrill as she spoke. "An eyass, a child. You're still just a child!"

"Hey, I ain't no stupid kid!" I retorted. I thought I'd more than proven myself by now. She couldn't be that surprised, could she? I didn't look like an old man or anything. "I'm gonna be in my last year of school, soon!"

"A child beat Saffron!" Kiima snarled, standing up and glaring at me. Were those tears in her gentle purple eyes my fault? What the hell was going on? She placed both hands on the table, looking at me directly. "How could a child beat Saffron?"

She was gone, fleeing through the door.

"Hey, wait!" I yelled, abandoning the remains of my meal and taking off after her. She raced through the halls, which were too small for me to use Herb's trick to catch up. She seemed to effortlessly flit through the crowds of people walking around while I was forced to go around.

She hit one of the vertical thermal tunnels leading up to the higher levels of the mountain, and spread her wings. Strong updrafts of vaguely sulfurous air carried her quickly up. I ran and leaped, and began to rebound off the walls trying to catch up.

Eventually, in a narrow tunnel devoid of people, I caught up to her.

"Hey, talk to me damn it!" My hand reached out, caught her arm. She finally stopped, turning to face me. Tears ran down her face and in the back of my mind I felt vaguely guilty. I took a deep breath, letting her arm go. I was calm, now. "Why were you so surprised?"

"Saotome, you really don't know?" Her question was so quiet that I barely heard it, and all I could do was shake my head. She took a steadying breath of her own before she continued. "Ranma, the Phoenix tribe was initially born from the union of Lord Saffron and a human woman, many centuries ago. We've inherited some of his traits. Don't you know how old I am? How old everyone here is?"

"You're maybe what, twenty four?" I asked, taking a random stab. She looked older than me, yeah… But not all that much older. She looked maybe a few years older than Kasumi… but I was beginning to catch on.

"I'm nearly eighty years old, Ranma." Maybe I hadn't caught on as quickly as I'd have liked to. Eighty years old? She couldn't be that old… But it was beginning to make sense. All of their people were warriors, and all of them were very skilled. The average Phoenix would have been a tough fight for me back when I'd first crossed the ocean to China, with my father.

It did make sense. They couldn't all be naturally gifted at martial arts. But if you give anyone decades to work on a skill, they're bound to get pretty damned good.

I remembered that Kiima was Saffron's mother, of sorts. She had to look after him when he was still a kid. I don't know why I didn't put it together before, but if I'd guessed her age right like I thought I did, she'd have been younger than me when she started to look after him.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a gong being beaten. Even where we were, we could hear the shouts.

"The Musk have broken through the west gate!"

I looked at Kiima and she nodded to me, her face set. We could talk about this later, right now we had to help defend her home. She raced with reckless speed through the tunnels, and I followed. After a blur of tunnels, we arrived at the first large cavern right at the west gate, a housing district with roughly forty homes on the floor and in the walls.

It was chaos. The Phoenix people were swooping in and trying to damage the Musk going for the various vents throughout the cave. If they covered them they'd take away the Phoenix's ability to fly easily, and that would be an advantage even the simple minds of the Musk could grasp.

There, at the center of the maelstrom was Herb, directing the battle with all the skill and finesse of a conductor and lobbing chi blasts at everyone within range. All on his own, he was having a significant effect on the flow of the battle. If I could take him out, the Phoenix might be able to push the Musk back out of the mountain.

"Herb!" I screamed, and he saw me. I leaped, using buildings and long leaps to clear most of the Musk army. Behind me Kiima yelled a warning, but I ignored it. Herb's grin of challenge was clear, and it called for me to wipe it from his face.

"Ranma!" He yelled, and leaped to meet me. In mid-air we clashed, and began to trade blows at a lightning pace. I was a little faster than he was, but his strikes hurt more.

Round two was on.

≈

Author's Notes:

First things first. I need to stay the heck away from Anime Addventure. I'll say no more, but it's a little too addictive for my tastes. I would have had a new chapter up a couple days ago if I hadn't been distracted by it… That, and bottling all the mead I'd brewed for New Years. I just did some… Quality tests. Yeah, that's it.

Secondly, I've got a link to a sketch I did at work of Ranma in his tunic. It's not entirely terrible, but definitely not my best work. You can check it out by following the link in my profile.

Finally… Don't expect anything until late Monday night at the earliest. I have a long weekend (Saturday through Monday), but I expect to be busy today and recovering from the mead (see above) on the Sunday. Ranshin, that chapter ending up there was just for you… Ask and ye shall receive.


	6. Chapter 5

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Chapter 5

≈

I was running out of options. The fight was on even ground, this time… and Herb was still better. Worse yet, I didn't have a quarterstaff this time so I wasn't able to block the strikes he leveled my way with the Gekkaja.

Even worse, he'd learned from the last time I fought him. He was now used to my speed, and was keeping just far enough away that he could easily evade most of my strikes. He'd negated my speed advantage while keeping the strength advantage he had over me.

It was getting really frustrating to fight him.

I broke off from an exchange of blows, using a nearby Musk soldier to launch myself high into the air, away from his staff and his reach. I gathered the ambient chi to me, forming it into a ball in my cupped hands.

"Mouko Takabisha!" I screamed, sending a writhing yellow ball of chi rocketing towards Herb. He jumped up and over the blast, and up at me. I twisted my body under a mid-air roundhouse, countering with a Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken to Herb's ribs. He ignored these, swatting me in the chest with the Gekkaja. I bounced off of a rooftop, my left arm frozen to my chest.

There was ice all around my midsection, and I smashed it with my free hand before I landed a second time, kicking up a cloud of dust in the abandoned street. Herb alighted on a nearby rooftop, leveling that staff directly at me.

"You're finished, Saotome." Herb's grin was feral and sinister, a dark reflection of the look in those dark eyes of his. He brought the staff back, and I could feel the hot chi pouring off of his body as his eyes narrowed. I tensed to move, prepared to counter any strike he could try. "Behold my power! Hiryu Kisoku Ha!"

In retrospect, maybe moving would have been better. A sharp wind kicked up as he swung his staff towards me, spiraling into a fiery maelstrom around me. There was so much hot chi that without the cold chi coming off the Gekkaja, I would have been burned to a crisp. I was thankful he didn't have the Kinjakan, tucked away safely somewhere far above in the mountain.

All around the cave, the Phoenix tribe were being battered by the winds from the horizontal tornado Herb was throwing at me. The tide we'd thrown against the Musk was being pushed back, farther and farther away from the tunnel leading outside. Around the enormous power of Herb's technique, his soldiers moved to claim more and more ground. Homes became battlegrounds in their own right, and atop one I saw a lone Phoenix fighting off twenty or so Musk. It was Kiima, and even in the instant my eyes were on her she gored a Musk soldier with her sword.

I had to do something. I had to help her!

I focused on the Soul of Ice, quieting the desperation and panic and tried to counter Herb's technique with a Hiryu Shoten Ha of my own. I screamed as the whirling chi within me was unleashed, forcing my tornado against his, throwing my might into one blow to negate his tornado. A fierce wind born of my cold chi and harnessing the ambient warm chi around me burst forth from my fist. For an instant I heard the roar of thunder all around me.

Herb's Hiryu Kisoku Ha began to slow… and then my tornado broke before his and I was again engulfed in that hot, buffeting air. I could feel my strength being sapped, just as with the Hiryu Shoten Ha he hit me with, way back when we'd fought for the first time. Only this time, I couldn't harness his chi to use a supercharged Mouko Takabisha. He was too damned strong now, had too much chi to burn, and his control was much better. With all that power he had naturally, combined with the Gekkaja… I couldn't even make any kind headway against the writhing strands of his chi. Trying to grasp his chi to harness the power itself into a blast was like trying to grasp water in a clenched fist.

I couldn't neutralize him, let alone send a counter-tornado his way. He was stronger than me, and I couldn't just overpower him. Think!

The answer came to me, plain as day. Martial Arts 101. When you can't dodge or counter a blow, deflect it. A Hiryu Shoten Ha leveled towards the ceiling… It just might work! It would redirect the Hiryu Kisoku Ha away from me and towards the ceiling. It'd give me an opening to counter attack!

Again I focused. Again, I summoned the Soul of Ice like a shroud around my soul. I concentrated my power into one point on my fist, and thrust up.

So desperate was my plan that I didn't think of the consequences. I forgot the true use of the Hiryu Shoten Ha, and how it was powered. A Hiryu Shoten Ha feeds off the power fed into it. Herb's horizontal variation fueled my own vertical Hiryu Shoten Ha, and though I lost my control and my footing, my tornado remained. I was sent flying towards the ceiling, and I saw the panic on Herb's face as his own technique spiraled out of control, throwing his army around the cavern and mercilessly pounding them.

I hit the ceiling, and for an instant my vision left me. I felt my ribs crack and blood, hot and sticky, on the back of my head. I was falling… and then I was caught in gentle arms, smaller than my own. I looked into the purple eyes of my savior, and it was Kiima. She was shouting, but I couldn't hear her words. I couldn't hear anything. Despite the flurry of motion, I felt peaceful.

I saw the Phoenix begin to retreat out of this cave. Up above, my Hiryu Shoten Ha, fueled by Herb's Hiryu Kisoku Ha, drilled a hole into the ceiling. The cavern began to collapse behind the remaining elements of the Phoenix as the rocks fell, burying the Musk soldiers in a storm of rock and earth.

My vision went dark, and I fell unconscious as a dull rumble echoed in the back of my head.

≈

"Control, boy!" My old man groused, watching me try to balance on the fence. I'm only six years old, so it's a little difficult. Jumping up was easy, but I couldn't hold my balance for more than a second or two. It was just too difficult to do. I'd get up, and before I knew it I'd lurch one way and then the other. Then, I'd fall back to the ground.

"Pop, it's hard!" I complained, and in response he jumped up to the fence. He began to stride it's length, pacing back and forth as he began to lecture. Where I stumbled, he stalked with all the grace of a cat.

"Ranma my boy, it's not as hard as it looks. You're using too much power when you try to balance! Power isn't everything. You need to be able to control that power, boy!" For emphasis he leapt up, easily going higher than the telephone wires in the neighborhood. He landed, hardly rattling the chain links of the fence. "The greatest martial artists are not the strongest, or the fastest! They are the ones who possess the control to do exactly what they want to do, and nothing more or less! All those martial artists who rely on their strength or their speed… They will always be second rate brawlers. It is control which makes all the difference."

I nodded, and leapt up onto the fence again. As I went to rebalance myself, I remembered my father's words. Slowly, still wavering back and forth across the fence, I gained my footing and stood. My father grinned at me, and began to walk away, still striding along the fence.

"Think you can keep up, boy? Your mother needs these noodles before she starts cooking dinner! Hurry!" The grin on his face belied the nature of the situation, and I slowly followed. Every time I'd fall, he'd stop and wait for me.

It was just like he said, all it took was control.

≈

"I think he's waking up! Go get Lady Kiima!" Some excited voice was shouting, loud enough that it felt like it was right in my ear. I recognized the voice, but I couldn't remember where from. Groggily, I tried to sit up. I felt bandages all around my torso and as I reached up to feel my head, I felt more wrapped around the crown of my head.

Opening my eyes was a struggle, and even the dim candlelight in the room blurred everything. Slowly, my vision came back as I heard footsteps approach my bed.

"Saotome, I thought you were out of the fight for good." Kiima voice sounded almost relieved, and I focused on the direction she'd spoken from. Slowly, and accompanying a large headache, she came into focus. She didn't look hurt, thankfully.

"How long?" I groaned, and looked around the room. Suzu was in the other bed, resting on her front. Her wings were spread out in some strange contraption made of wires and splints, but I shrugged this off. They looked a lot better than the last time I'd seen her, and if I didn't know better I could have sworn they weren't broken anymore.

"You've been unconscious for nearly a week." Kiima said, and I groaned as it all came back to me. The fight with Herb, the collapsed cavern. How many people had died because of that? I voiced my question to Kiima.

"Surprisingly few of our own people, Saotome." Kiima stated grimly. A smile, darker than I'd have expected from her, now graced her fine lips. "Herb's forces still in the cavern were mostly wiped out. We suspect you injured Herb as well, as he's not tried any of the other gates since that last attack. Another defeat for him to stomach, all thanks to you."

This news hit me like a brick to the face. How much blood was now on my hands? How many of the Musk had been killed because I didn't want to lose that fight with Herb? This was so different from how I usually fought! I never killed anyone!

Saffron, a dark voice whispered in the back of my mind. You killed Saffron.

No, I didn't! He was reborn!

Again, I felt the hot spray of Saffron's blood on my face. I couldn't justify it to myself any longer.

"I think I need to be alone for a while." I mumbled, getting out of bed. My ribs protested any movement, but I ignored them. Still no sign of my shirts, so I grabbed the tunic on the end of my bed, this one white with some gold embroidery on the collar. I didn't even bother to lace it up as I walked past Kiima, heading for the door. As I walked through the hospital, I saw a lot of injured Phoenix resting on the beds.

Were these injuries my fault? How many of these people were here because of my actions?

I left the hospital, and began to wander aimlessly. Eventually after only the Kamis know how long, I found a quiet hall. Striding down the hall, I came to a small balcony, overlooking the mountain slopes. I couldn't see any sign of the Musk, so I must have been on the opposite side of the mountain.

The beauty of China's mountains assaulted my vision, forcing me to blink away the brightness. I must've gotten a pretty good hit to the head when I hit the ceiling of that cavern to still be feeling the effects of the concussion.

I easily dropped into a meditative pose, closing my eyes to the mountainside and closing my mind to all outside influences. I evened my breathing, inhaling for two seconds and then exhaling for four. I journeyed into myself, seeking answers.

Had I done something wrong? Yes, my choice in that fight was wrong. Through my actions, the lives of many people had ended. Their blood was on my hands. I couldn't rationalize it away with any knowledge that there would have been more bloodshed if I hadn't been there. That wasn't the point.

If I hadn't been there, that blood wouldn't have been on my hands. That was the nature of war. People die in wars, and now I was faced with a single question. Was I a martial artist, or a warrior? A martial artist's duty was to protect all life. A warrior's duty was to kill where and when he deems it necessary to protect the people he deems worthy of his protection.

Could I really do that? Could I feel the crunch of a Musk's throat underneath my fist? Could I really watch the life leave his eyes as he falls back, never to move again? Could I continue on afterwards, knowing that I would have to do it again and again for as long as the battle was being fought, unless some other person took my life?

My mind raced over the battle, cataloging every detail I'd ignored while I was focused on Herb. There were casualties, I remembered. Civilian casualties. Phoenix people had died thanks to the actions of Herb's men.

A hard choice to make, and not enough options for me to pick. I really only had two choices. I could stay and fight, eventually leading me to kill still more people with my art… or I could flee from this fight, leaving the Phoenix to fight and die in their homes.

Not enough options. Only two paths laid before me, and one of them wasn't even worth considering. I couldn't leave these people to fight and die, not without helping.

I would have to kill. Living with it would be something I could figure out after this fight, when lives weren't depending on me. My old man had always said that sometimes doing your duty was harder than anything in the world, and he was proving himself right one more time.

"There you are." Kiima's voice, quiet and right behind me. I hadn't even heard her approach; I was so concentrated on my thoughts. I opened my eyes to another surprise, as I noticed the darkness. How long had I been meditating?

"What do you want?" I asked, getting up. I tried to keep my voice even, but I almost sounded as bitter as Ryouga usually was. I tried a smile, and it didn't hurt. "Sorry, I'm not in a good mood."

"I know." Kiima didn't seem surprised, or angry with me. Her face was oddly neutral. That was weird. She walked to the stone ledge ringing the balcony, leaning on it with her forearms as she looked at the moon. "I wouldn't have asked you to fight this with my people if I'd known, Ranma."

"If you knew what?" I asked, now getting offended. Wait, did she just call me Ranma? She never called me Ranma!

"I wouldn't ask a child to fight." Oh, that. I'd be damned if she didn't look like Nabiki's twin at that statement. She somehow managed to combine an almost bored tone with arrogance and a touch of condescending challenge. Didn't she know how I reacted to challenges?

"I ain't a child!" This stuff was starting to make me mad. I wasn't no stupid kid! I was a martial artist, the best martial artist in the world! I jumped onto the raised ledge, balancing easily on the balls of my feet as I crouched down to eye level with her. "I'm young, but no kid could do what I can!"

"You are an absurdly skilled child, then." Kiima countered, gesturing to me with one hand as she turned her face to meet my eyes. The look on her face was unreadable, but her eyes were narrowed. "The last fight you were in, you nearly died. Tomorrow, my Cast will lead you out of this place. I can't ask someone so young to fight alongside us."

"Good." I growled, standing and looking out over the horizon. I tilted my head down to look at her, and I saw surprise registered in her eyes. "Then I can kick Herb's ass and end this war."

"You'd really try, wouldn't you?" Kiima chuckled to me, and I nodded without taking the grin off my face. My position was plain. I belonged here as much as she did. Soon, we were both laughing to ourselves at the silliness of it all. "Saotome, you're a rare individual. Not many people would leave the comfort of their homes to help out their enemies fight an army. Fewer still would leave the women they're about to marry."

"Yeah, about that…" I began, and dropped down to sit on the ledge, gazing up at the stars. I had to tell her the truth. I'd hidden it long enough, and I wasn't gonna lie to her. "I dunno if I've got a home anymore, or a fiancée to go back to."

"Pardon me?" Kiima's voice was almost deadpan, and I thought I heard her voice catch. What was that all about?

"Yeah. I kinda got into a fight with the Tendous over you. They didn't want to help at all, and I did. I wasn't gonna just let Mint and Lime have you. They're my enemies, too... And you needed help." It was hard, thinking about it. The Tendou Dojo was the only place I'd ever really had to call home. Aside from the occasional trip, I'd spent nearly two years there. Thinking about never being able to go back was a concept more alien to me than any amount of curses and monsters. "Me and Akane got into a fight about it, too. It's alright, though. We get into fights like this all the time. Ain't nothing to be worried about."

"You turned your back to your family, for me?" What was that tone in Kiima's voice? It was softer than anything I'd ever heard from her before. I pulled a knee to my chest as I turned to look at her.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I? It's a martial artist's duty to protect those who're too weak to protect themselves. I wasn't going to just leave you outside the doors, to get hurt more. You were hurt bad enough already." Was she crying? It was hard to see her eyes in the light, but she couldn't have been crying. "Feh, it's alright. I'll be able to go back to 'em no problem. I can just tell 'em that I had a fight to win."

"Ranma…" Her voice caught, and I heard her choke back a sob. She was crying!

"Hey, it's alright!" I swung my feet around and stood next to her, putting my hands gently on her shoulders. I grinned to her, meeting her eyes with my own. "This is all gonna be over soon. If those Musk think they can keep me from Kasumi's cooking, they've got another thing coming to 'em. I nearly had Herb last time. I'll do it next time for sure!"

I didn't expect for Kiima to grab me in an unpleasantly tight hug and bury her face in my shoulder. My ribs protested, but I didn't say anything, I just closed my arms around her. She was so fragile she felt like a porcelain doll in my arms.

"Thank you." I barely heard her whispered voice, muffled against my tunic. I didn't reply, didn't do anything. I wondered if women would **ever **make sense. Had I really done anything all that special?

I'd left the Tendous, but I always got into fights with them over Akane, or other stupid things. It wasn't like this time was any different. I'd get back, probably still injured from the next fight I'd have with Herb, and they'd be so concerned about my wounds, wondering how I'd gotten 'em, wondering who'd I'd had to fight this time, that they'd forget the reason for the fight in the first place. That was how it always happened.

Besides, sooner or later my old man would eventually get around to talking to old man Tendou and he'd point out all the things I'd done in China for Akane. They'd go on about how we were perfect for each other, and then be after me to get me back when I didn't return for a few weeks. They were probably on their way already.

That's how it'd happen, right? A little voice in the back of my head was telling me that maybe it wasn't going to happen that way, this time. Something about all of this felt different. I wasn't out here fighting for Akane, this time. I was out here fighting for someone who'd tried to kill Akane.

Maybe they wouldn't understand.

I lost myself in my thoughts, so much so that I didn't even notice she'd stopped crying until she pulled away. I hoped she hadn't tried to talk to me while she'd be using my tunic as a handkerchief, because I wouldn't have heard her.

"I'm sorry. I usually don't lose control like that." Kiima's voice was still quiet, but it was more solid. I just shrugged, not trusting myself to say anything. Women cried over the weirdest things. I mean, it wasn't like she knew that I might not be able to go back. Even I wasn't worried about things, and there she was crying over it for me!

"No problem." I grunted, turning to look out over the landscape again. I chuckled to myself, thinking about all the things I'd done since I'd picked her up from that rooftop. "Just add it to your tab. Saffron better be the best damned kid ever, when he's older."

"I'd almost forgotten that request." Kiima laughed, and it sounded different. Usually she had an unpleasant chuckle, the sort of chuckle that made you think you were the butt of some joke, but this was different. It sounded… nice. She leaned onto the rail, glancing up at me. "Don't worry about him. I'll make him just like you."

"Not gonna happen." I snorted, crossing my arms and mock frowning. "He ain't gonna be as good at martial arts as I am. Maybe when he's older, I'll teach him a few things… but I'll always be the best."

"You almost make me believe it." Kiima laughed again, and she turned back to the horizon, saying nothing more. I joined her, watching the moon make its way across the skyline. It almost reminded me of the Tendou's rooftop. I couldn't quite lay on my back and watch, but there was something nice about resting my elbows on the ledge.

It was a little after sunrise before we left the balcony.

≈

Author's Notes:

Wow, it's been nearly a week since my last update, on an update with barely 3800 words. This chapter was difficult for me to write, for a lot of reasons. First, the fight with Herb. I had writer's block on that one for a long time, and I just couldn't seem to pull things together on it.

On top of that, the scene with Kiima took me a whole four days to write. I'm not going to say how many times I rewrote it, but suffice to say I know the passage word for word now. I'm certain I recite it in my sleep.

Now, for the bad news. No, I'm not quitting. It's just that I expect this fic to last maybe another four chapters (plus an epilogue on top of that). I'll give it a chapter in either direction, but this one's passed the half-way mark by now. I know it's disappointing, but I don't want to fall into the trap of letting the fic go on and on forever more, only ending when I get bored with it. Planning an end for it now keeps me from giving it a poor end later on.

Anyways, thanks for all the reviews, and keep them coming! I appreciate all the comments I've received thus far, and look forward to more.

-Gaming Ikari


	7. Chapter 6

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Chapter 6

≈

For another week after I'd talked with Kiima on that balcony, the Musk remained mostly silent. Word came from Casts doing scout duty that the Musk had withdrawn to their camp and were doing little but waiting. Kiima's Cast stayed behind, now teaching the other Phoenix warriors to fight in their own human forms. In this void, I had nothing better to do than train myself.

It was a little frightening, the waiting. I had a nervous energy that no amount of training would banish. I punched a million invisible foes; not one would relieve the tension sitting at the back of my mind.

I'd never been able to admit my fears to myself: If I was able to be more honest with myself I might be able to realize that I was afraid of what the Musk were doing. I would have wondered what they were planning. I would have wondered why they weren't pressing their attack.

Herb wouldn't have been killed in that last fight of ours. Not unless I'd gotten extraordinarily lucky in the last month… and there was not a chance in hell of that.

Sitting on a ledge as I watched the Musk army, I was almost relieved when a wave of power washed over the mountain. Something's chi was pouring out of the Musk camp with a power I hadn't felt since Saffron.

No.

This power was beyond Saffron. This was wild, untamed. It grabbed hold of me from my skin to my soul as I felt it slither angrily from the center of the camp. I could feel the rage behind it's every flicker as it searched.

It felt like Herb, but not. I recognized parts of Herb in the chi but other parts were foreign; an unknown intruder in his aura that was more sinister than anything I'd ever felt before. What the hell was going on?

I stood and narrowed my eyes as a thrashing in the centre of the Musk camp knocked over the main tent. Something large enough that even miles away, I could have made out individual details if the thing would just hold still.

That was the source of all of the chi worming it's way through the mountain! This far away?

I stood, unblinking as I waited for the thrashing to stop. Slowly, the creature began to unfold itself, discarding the remains of Herb's tent like one might discard a wet coat. Even at this distance, I could make out the talons on one claw-ended limb.

I almost cried, laughing myself hoarse as I looked across the vast horizon. It all made sense now. I knew why I could feel Herb's chi in the air, even though I knew it couldn't have been Herb. It was Herb, but like I'd never seen him before.

Herb had turned himself into a dragon. It didn't make any sense at all. I laughed until my throat was raw, seeing the dragon settle back down amidst the remains of Herb's tent. I laughed until the sound was almost a cough.

Even now, even with the damned thing at rest, I could feel its chi probing me and the entire damned mountain. I could feel the way it embraced me. I could feel the way it tasted the fear welling at the back of my throat, wanting to scream its way free and send me howling into the night.

I could feel its satisfaction. It knew me. That was why it wasn't worried. It rested now because it knew it would be able to pluck me from this mountain and throw the Phoenix tribe like chaff to the wind.

I laughed at my life… What little remained of it.

I centered myself as I tried to consider the problem. I felt my fear and my panic as I withdrew my aura within myself, and I understood. The fear, the panic… They were part of this thing's aura. It suddenly didn't feel so powerful.

It seemed pathetic. Could this monster fight if it needed to rely on its opponents running away in fear?

I dropped easily into lotus, now considering my opponent as calm returned to me and I could think again. He was large, that was clear. He also possessed a lot more raw power than me.

Could he fight as well in this form? It was new to him, and clearly very different from his old human form. That would be a large disadvantage. He also wouldn't be able to use the Gekkaja. Maybe he wasn't so invincible after all... There had to be a way to fight. I thought back to the legend Kiima told me the other day.

She'd been talking about the legend of the Dragon and the Phoenix. They were locked in eternal battle, and were in balance. The Dragon was supposedly more powerful; the Phoenix could rebirth itself if it ever died. The Dragon would never risk direct conflict with the Phoenix because the Dragon could be killed and the Phoenix had to watch its people, still infants in an uncaring world. They reached an uneasy truce, agreeing to never discover which was truly greater.

How did Herb's people fit into the legend? If Saffron was the Phoenix that would make Kiima and her people the ones the Phoenix had to protect in the legend. The legend didn't mention anything about the Musk… and I remember Cologne telling me that Herb was only a little older than me.

He couldn't be the Dragon, could he? How could he be Dragon if he was barely older than me? The Phoenix and their people extended back thousands of years. If Herb was only seventeen or eighteen, who had been the Dragon before him?

It was hours before Kiima found me.

I was still sitting on that ledge. I stared across that great distance at the Dragon, considering it as it slumbered. Doubts raged in my mind. I couldn't afford to fail, not with an entire race of people counting on me. Maybe I could use the Kinjakan?

"Saotome, we've lost," Kiima's voice was soft. It had been slowly regaining it's hard edge all week; now it was blunted again. I turned to consider her, and I could see the weight this statement threw upon her.

"No, we we're not!" Bravado fueled that statement, but I believed every word as I stood. Joints cracked as I got to my feet, knees and elbows getting used to the idea of moving again. I threw a hand dismissively at the Musk camp, taking in the Dragon. "That great big lizard ain't got what it takes. Y'know what that means, Kiima? Do you know what it means that the Musk had to call out that big scary frog? They're scared! They've got us pinned in this mountain and they're still scared of us!"

Kiima stared at me, disbelief marking her normally unflappable face. I jumped down beside her, clapping her on the shoulder as I walked past.

"Saotome, you can't really believe that," Kiima growled, grabbing my shoulder and spinning me around to face the Musk camp again. Her grip dug in so hard I felt blood welling underneath her sharp talons. "That is not just any dragon. Saffron is afraid of facing that monster! We have to flee!"

I looked into her eyes, roiling with emotion. She was terrified of the thought of opposing this thing, almost like she just wanted to find some dark hole to hide in. It all made sense as I considered the roiling terror in her eyes. I'd almost forgotten the Dragon's aura.

"Kiima, do me a favour," I said, gently removing her hand from my shoulder. I turned her to face the Dragon, and she flinched away from the sight of it's sleeping form. I firmly pushed her forward, to the point where her legs were pressed against the balcony. She tried to force herself back, away from the Dragon, but I grabbed the rail and pinned her to it. I looked over her shoulder, calmly taking in the sight of the sleeping Dragon. "Ignore that ugly lizard. Ignore the panic you feel. Force the Dragon's aura away from your own!"

"I can't!" She yelled, shoving against me. Her wings beat with a frenzy as she tried to escape. Her chi was absolutely wild with fear, almost as if she was feeling nothing else. I grabbed her around her waist before she could escape, holding her as she faced the Musk camp. I knew she could face down this terror, if I could get her to figure out what it was.

"Calm down, Kiima! Focus on something else!" I yelled as my own mind racing. What would bring her out of this? What could I tell her to focus on? Then it hit me. It might have even been how Saffron protected his people from the Dragon in the first place. "Kiima, remember the Phoenix! Remember your ancestor is Saffron! He wasn't afraid of no stupid lizard! He just cared too damned much about all of you to risk bringing you into his fight!"

"Saffron…" Kiima muttered, almost as if she'd forgotten who he was. Her wings stopped flapping and she collapsed against me. I gently set her on her feet and moved back a half-step, ready to grab her if she panicked again.

"Remember your lord," I continued, slowly speaking the words as calmly as I could. I actually felt the fear ebb from her chi, slowly disappearing like dust in a stream. "Remember that the stupid overgrown gecko over there is just another enemy. He can be beaten, just like anything else."

"Thank you, Ranma," Kiima's voice was slowly regaining it's steadiness if, not the hard edge I was used to hearing from her… though by now I was starting to expect her voice to go all soft at the weirdest times. She turned to face me. "Do you really think you can win?"

"Heck, let's send that giant snake a challenge letter! I'm getting sick of this stupid fight. It's time to end things once and for all. Tell him it's just me and him, in three days." I marched inside the mountain, Kiima trailing after me. She didn't say a single word, still lost in her own thoughts.

The Kinjakan would be my ace in the hole. I could probably duplicate Herb's trick of just flinging Hiryu Shoten Has all over the place with a bit of practice. A big thing like that was slow and clumsy. Fighting the Orochi had taught me that.

≈

It took hours for Kiima to get everyone calmed down. There were some that had already fled the mountain. Casts were sent to try to retrieve them, but there was little hope for those who had been lost. Though the Musk were not actively attacking, there was still the occasional patrol.

Those lone runners had little chance if they encountered one, and it took valuable hours to get the general populace out of the trance before pursuers could be organized.

During this fragile time, I stayed in my room. Not all of the Phoenix were used to me, yet. Some of their warriors were getting used to seeing me, but the respect I was granted by the normal people was still flavoured by the fear they had of me. I didn't want any of 'em running away because they saw me.

Eventually Kiima came to my room with another Phoenix tribe woman so old she looked almost skeletal trailing behind her. This other woman was wearing flowing white robes which gently caressed the ground as she walked, and I saw that she was blind. Her milky white eyes did not move as she walked.

"Ranma, this is Michiyo. She's the oldest living Phoenix tribe member, aside from Saffron." Kiima was very reverent towards this woman, so I decided it might be a good idea to do the same. I bowed to her, waiting for her to speak as I straightened up. Something about her bothered me, but I ignored it as she started to speak.

"You face a time of terrible danger, child," Michiyo intoned, moving without hesitation to sit on my bed. She turned her head towards me, though her eyes appeared to be staring at a point somewhere over my shoulder. "You do not yet know how far your journey will take you. Not even I can say how far you might just take this."

"How do you know all this?" I asked, straining to keep my voice polite. The woman wasn't making any sense to me.

"I am old, child. I am almost as old as those little girls playing at being warriors across the valley. I have seen this day coming for some time." She shifted where she was sitting, looking me directly in the eyes with a smirk. She was blind but I had the creepy feeling she knew every bit of my face. "It has almost come full circle."

"What has almost come full circle?" I asked, almost not hearing myself speak. Her words drew me in, keeping the world from my senses. The only thing I knew were those grayed eyes of hers.

"An ancient prophecy, child. Your birth, your skills… They were foretold when your nation was young. Before the time when your ancient house rose from the ashes of the clan wars of your past to grasp the Saotome name, you were spoken of in whispers by the ancient and terrible gods as they warred for control of Heaven." She chuckled, though her unblinking eyes remained focused on my own. "I have waited three thousand years for this day to come."

I began to stumble back, trying to escape those piercing, blind eyes. She waited for me for three thousand years? What the heck was going on here? I wasn't that important.

"In fact, I've lived this long just to give you a gift." I was powerless to flee as she stood. Too late to move, frozen by some power I couldn't comprehend, I finally understood what bothered me about her: She had no chi I could feel. None. One of those clawed hands reached up, gently brushing a bang aside as her paper-like skin brushed my temple. "Fear not, child. With this power, you will easily slay your foes."

Icy claws tore at my mind: I screamed as my vision blurred. I felt myself falling…

≈

Author's Notes:

It would appear I owe all of my dedicated readers two apologies. One apology for leaving the fic this long and the other for only producing a chapter that's twenty five hundred words long. I've been both busy and lazy this past fortnight.

On the bright side not only is the end in sight; I know exactly how I intend to end things. All of the stuff I've hinted at this chapter will be made clear in the next and I expect to have that up sometime around Sunday. It's going to make up for this chapter's length, for sure. It's already nearly two thousand words.

I also apologize for ending this on another cliffhanger. However between this bulk of text and what I've written for the next chapter, this was the best place to end it. I would have had this up late last night but I got distracted reading Valentine's Rising by EE Knight.

Cheers, and see you folks on Sunday

-Gaming Ikari


	8. Chapter 7

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Chapter 7

≈

My vision cleared and I found myself floating in a white void. I couldn't tell if the edge where the edge was… it could have been just one mile away, or been so far I'd never have been able to see it anyways. I spun in place, looking for a point of reference. There was nothing but me, and my arms looked all weird. After a little while, I realized it was because there weren't any shadows around.

"This is the vessel?" A quiet voice muttered; hard as granite and low enough that I felt the rumbling deep inside my chest. I spun in the direction of the voice and found nothing. The voice continued. "His mind is devoid of thought."

"He is more than worthy, Fan Shou." Michiyo's voice spoke, now unstrained by age. I focused on the direction of her voice, but I couldn't see a damned thing. "See, he can hear us. I don't understand why someone like you is so arrogant anyways: You used to be a fish."

"Maybe he is worthy," Fan Shou allowed. I heard a splash behind me and turned to find myself face to face with an enormous golden-red dragon. Great masses of gray hair flowed back from behind two small horns and large black eyes considered me as I took in the huge claws, easily capable of tearing me to shreds. "Do you know who I am, boy?"

I shook my head, taking in the size of his individual scales. Each was longer than I was tall, and nearly as wide From what I could see, this Dragon was over three hundred feet long… much bigger than the Orochi was in length.

"He's just a mean old fish!" Michiyo's voice chimed in and I spun again to find myself facing a young Phoenix tribe girl, easily recognizable as Kiima's twin... The only difference was her hair, which stretched almost to her ankles. She smiled impishly as she slowly floated around me, her bright blue eyes taking in the sight of me. "Wow, I didn't expect you to be quite so cute!"

"Michiyo, must you?" Fan Shou's voice sounded almost pained.

"Hey, I've been locked in an old crone's body for the last three thousand years! Give me a little bit of freedom, you overgrown piece of gull bait!" Fan Shou almost looked resigned to the tirade and I was thoroughly confused. Michiyo noticed this, but didn't say anything at all to me.

"I gather you don't know who, or what I am." Fan Shou continued, ignoring Michiyo's presence. He began to glide through the empty space, encircling me. "There is a legend that something as simple as a carp, a lifeless fish, can become a creature as powerful as a dragon simply by finding the Dragon Gate and leaping through. I am the first; the only of my kind to make the transition."

"Only because you broke the line of my fishing hook!" Michiyo tossed in, and Fan Shou began to glide away from me, shaking his giant head in disgust. Michiyo floated close, an impish smile adorning her soft face. "He'll insist on going on about how he did it through persistence and hard work… but the reality is that he just got lucky. I was fishing at the base of the waterfall where the Dragon Gate is and he managed to break free of my line as I yanked it out of the water."

"You make it sound like a fluke." Fan Shou tossed in, sounding almost petulant. Was he embarrassed? He came up behind Michiyo, encircling her with one claw. She giggled as he lifted her to his shoulder. "I prefer to think of our meeting as Destiny writ large: Even as I passed through the Dragon Gate I was imbued with knowledge and wisdom beyond my years. Even as my scales grew long and my body stretched to disproportionate length, I learned the ways of the cosmos and became intimately familiar with the tapestry of Fate herself."

"Fate?" I questioned, trying to keep up. This huge monster was once a fish? What the hell? I pressed that bit of knowledge to the side; choosing to focus on the more important bits of knowledge this huge lizard was dropping on me. A name, maybe?

"Ah, Fate." Fan Shou mused, bringing one huge claw to his chin, rubbing it softly. He began to loop in the air, lost in his own thoughts. "Capricious and cruel, she weaves life in a design only she can fathom; even centuries afterwards, philosophers and emperors try to make sense of her workings. You miss the point of my story, I think."

"Make sense," I growled, feeling an edge creep into my voice. I didn't bother to try to hide it. "Fate's an excuse for people to tell you how you've gotta do things. Fate gave me this curse. I ain't having nothing to do with it. I make my own decisions!"

"Perhaps that was a poor example," Fan Shou allowed, inclining his head towards me. He looked away, as if seeing something I could not. "For you, it might be better to say that in passing the Dragon Gate I had some fundamental of martial arts revealed to me. The world seemed clearer in ways I'd never before considered. A boon at what should have been the twilight of my life which has placed me before you, long after the fall of many empires."

"Feh, I've had my chance at ultimate power," I growled, remembering the battle dougi. Even if I hadn't felt it myself, the battle dougi wound up teaching me a lesson… Power without training was a crutch that couldn't be relied on for true mastery. "If that's what you're offering, I refuse. I'll fight my own battles, damn it!"

"You turn down my offer? Do you really think you can face Gong Gong without my aid?" Fan Shou asked, his great brow rising as his serpentine neck arched away. I grinned at this.

"I'm Ranma Saotome," I said, explaining everything with just the introduction. People always told me that I was weak, useless. I've always been able to prove 'em wrong before. I'd continue to do it. "Don't you know who I am, fish? Gods fall under the blows from my fist. Dragons tremble in their claws when I walk. You think another one of you over-sized reptiles is gonna scare me? Ask the Orochi how he fared!"

Fan Shou, taken aback, considered me for the longest time. Was it my arrogance, or something else? Then he broke into a chuckle, the volume of which shook me to my marrow. His great claws rose from a rest to clutch the bottom of his serpentine body, wracked with laughter.

"Your audacity amuses me, human," the great dragon admitted, finally banishing his mirth. He slowly drifted away from me. "Perhaps I will remain where I am, so that you might learn the folly of your nature. Know that if you ever need me… I will be here for you."

He slowly began to fade… and despite the fact there was no gravity, Michiyo dropped from his shoulder to land on a plane roughly equal to the same level as I floated. Despite the fact I could still feel nothing underneath my feet she strode slowly towards me with ease.

"I wonder… Is it that you're really all that good, or are you just arrogant?" She asked, circling to my right with careful steps. I tried to spin to keep her in view, twisting and turning; despite my best efforts, she disappeared from view without changing stride. As she came around on my left side, she leaned and clasped her hands behind her back, as if weighing me. "Perhaps you're really all you say you are. Watching you deal with Gong Gong without the help of Fan Shou will be fun."

"Who the hell is Gong Gong?" I demanded, trying to think. How the hell was she able to get behind me like that? The rules were all weird here.

"Gong Gong is the demon in a dragon's form, sitting in the center of that army you're all too willing to go out and fight." Michiyo retorted, striding to stand toe to toe with me, shoving her finger in my face. Her features were contorted into an expression I could only call rage. "Years ago, long before your time, he tried to wrest the throne of Heaven from his brothers. He failed: In his shame he made a pact with a tribe of mortals, promising them power in exchange for worship. His tribe moved into this valley, and for millennia Saffron and Gong Gong have held an uneasy truce.

"In fact, you've taken up Saffron's responsibilities in his absence, haven't you?" Michiyo crowed, beginning to walk away. She stopped, looking over her shoulder towards me. "Remember that Gong Gong has the same weakness you do, Ranma. Remember that you're a martial artist; one of the best in the world. You are not weak in mind or body."

With that, she was gone. The icy fingers began to recede from my mind, and I felt hand hit the floor as my vision went dark. A dull thud directly ahead startled me, and I opened my eyes to find myself crouching over Michiyo's old body. No disturbing spirit danced within those eyes, now. No impish smile marked her face, now lifeless.

"Ranma, what happened?" Kiima asked, and I met her eyes. I searched for the words, but I couldn't find them. I finally shrugged. Michiyo had died to try to give me power and a message; in the face of this I'd rejected the first and was still attempting to figure out the second.

"I don't know," I admitted. I moved gently to Michiyo's body, absently closing her blind eyes as I thought about the words she'd died to tell me. She wouldn't have used the last of her strength to pad my ego, and she didn't wait three thousand years to call me cute.

Could I figure out the clues she'd given me?

≈

It didn't take long for the response to the challenge letter I'd sent. If Michiyo and Fan Shou were right, the letter didn't really count. Whatever was out there wasn't Herb, but it still wanted to fight me, wanted to kill every single person in this mountain.

In the days before the challenge, I concentrated my energy on learning to wield the Kinjakan while I fought. Despite its size the staff was very light and easy to use, twisting through the air as I struck almost as if it was a natural extension of my arm. I couldn't figure out how to launch the ring but put that down to some eccentricity with the staff. I didn't need it, anyways.

I discovered that merely by channeling a touch of my chi into the staff, I could launch some of the largest chi-based projectiles I'd ever wielded. Though I tried, I couldn't manage to make the blasts as big as those Saffron had used against me and unlike his, mine were not imbued with magical fire. Still, they were large enough to be an impressive threat and a welcome addition to my arsenal.

The most important part, however, was the day I learned to launch a Hiryu Shoten Ha simply by swinging the Kinjakan. They were not as strong as the true form of the move; the ability to make them almost instantly more than made up for this minor fault.

Almost as if time were racing towards the fight, it was the night before the challenge and I found myself outside of Saffron's chambers. I didn't know if it was by accident or if I'd been drawn to him in my internal confusion; I slipped into his chambers, grateful for the opportunity.

Despite the late hour the babe was up, but wasn't crying or anything. He was amusing himself by dragging his hands through the air, mesmerized by the sight of heat waves following his hands. I sat on a nearby ledge as I watched the child play. It was hard to see him as a protector of the people in this mountain, let alone the monster that had ordered Akane's death.

I ignored the feel of his blood on my face as I slowly walked to his crib, grasping the edge as I looked down at the tiny child. Even now, as a babe, I could see those impressive wings of his beginning to form on his back, enfolding him in a noble golden robe more impressive than anything the greatest tailors in the world could weave.

"I don't know why I'm here, kid. Ain't like you know what I'm saying," I chuckled, and Saffron gurgled happily in response. I decided he wanted me to continue. "I've got a fight tomorrow. I've dragged your people into a fight you've managed to avoid for a pretty long time, and it's my fault you aren't here to protect them."

The baby gurgled, and stretched his arms out to me. After he'd shaken his arms at me a few times, I reluctantly picked up the small child. He felt feather-light in my arms, but I could also feel the weight of his responsibilities crash down on me as he snuggled contently into my shoulder.

"Am I ready for this?" I asked him, and he sucked on the edge of my tunic in response. I chuckled, continuing with my thoughts. "Can I really take your place for these people?"

A disturbing thought struck me as I thought about my last visit. I thought about Akane's smile. I think the last time I'd seen it was at our failed wedding. It pained me to think about how long it'd been since I'd talked with her and I found myself hoping I'd get back to my tomboy. Who else could put up with her cooking? Who else would put up with me?

"I ain't gonna see her again, am I?" As Saffron happily burbled, glad to be held, I wished he could respond. I wanted him to tell me that things would be alright. I wanted him to tell me that I'd killed him and if anybody could do it, it would be me. I wanted him to tell me that Gong Gong, the beast who'd trapped him and his people in this mountain was nothing to fear.

"Hurk!" I glanced down as the child noisily burped. I don't know why Kiima called it that, anyways… It looked like puke sitting on my tunic to me. I shifted the child to one arm, using the bottom edge of my soiled tunic to wipe the rest of the stuff off of his face.

"You really are a pain in the ass, kid," I muttered, looking at his bright eyes and wondering what he would think when he was older. What kind of person he'd grow up to be. Would they tell him about this war?

I gently set Saffron back in his crib, and he slowly drifted off to sleep as I watched. His features were gentle, at peace. Even though I could see a lot of the man I'd fought months ago in him, his face was new to me.

It was late. I needed to sleep for the fight.

≈

The day emerged slowly, as if weary of the fighting over Phoenix Mountain. Dark clouds blotted the sky as if to condemn the war going on. I ignored it as I marched along the path towards the Musk camp, thousands of Saffron's people trailing behind me. Thankfully Kiima had finally located my pack and I was wearing my favourite red shirt, the sleeves rolled up to my elbows.

In my right hand, the Kinjakan glittered. I self-consciously shifted the bundle strapped to my belt, nervous as I heard it slosh around. I hoped it wouldn't break. It'd be a distraction I couldn't afford in this fight.

Ahead I could make out parts of Gong Gong, though the Musk camp was still out of sight. How big was he?

As I approached, I saw that he was a lot bigger than even Fan Shou. From his matte black tail to the glossy, slightly-red scales on his head this new dragon far outstripped any I'd ever seen before, probably two or three miles long and as thick around as the Tendou dojo. The Orochi would have been a minor annoyance to this thing. Fan Shou would have been ripped apart in Gong Gong's grasp.

As we marched through the camp the Musk jeered at me, at the Phoenix accompanying me. In the center of the camp, Gong Gong watched as we approached. Halfway to the center all of the Phoenix stopped, leaving me to cover the remaining distance on my own.

"Ranma Saotome…" Gong Gong breathed out lazily, slight puffs of smoke escaping from the corners of his broad lips. Those lips, easily as large as I was tall, parted to reveal fangs closing a mouth big enough to swallow an elephant whole. "I've accepted your challenge."

"Damn right you did, Gong Gong." I retorted, thumbing my nose and pointing to the giant lizard with the Kinjakan. "I'm gonna kick your sorry ass all over the ground and then send you home. You don't belong here."

"You know me?" Gong Gong seemed amused by the thought, his eyes glittering as he took me in. "Well then, puny mortal, when would you like to start our personal war?"

"Right now!" I growled, and leapt into the air. I needed to get the element of surprise working for me… He had so many advantages I didn't feel bad about keeping any I could.

He quickly circled me once, twice, before those great coils of his began to pull tight like a noose. He moved so damned fast, he was already surrounding me! Chi infused my legs as I angled towards one of the coils, using it as leverage to escape the trap. As I cleared the top coil a claw the size of a Honda truck tried to grasp me. My hands found purchase on the palm, and I twisted my weight and threw my feet at an angle, escaping between the third and fourth talons of his claw as it closed.

He was off balance. The Soul of Ice gripped me, and the heat of the Kinjakan grew in response.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" I swept the Kinjakan out, angling the tornado so it would hit him directly in the face. His head moved so quickly I could scarcely follow and pulled away and to the left, leaving the spiral of air to hit nothing. Still, it wasn't a total waste.

This close, he would continue to feed the technique for the rest of the fight. The tornado began to swirl around us both, and the faint winds tugged at my shirt.

I landed on one of his coils, now thrashing as he felt the hot and cold winds of the Hiryu Shoten Ha. As one claw moved in to claim me, I saw that another waited to grasp me should I escape the first. There would be no escape if I launched myself towards him.

I dove down between the coils on which I stood, and Gong Gong tightened them in response even as his claw followed. Another chi-enhanced leap, this time angled down, saw me clear of the trap once again. He roared in pain as his coils strangled his claw, and I heard the creak of bone before he thought to loosen his grip.

"You can't hurt me so you're gonna hurt yourself, you overgrown snake?" I roared, laughing at him. I gestured to his claw as he pulled it free. "You think I need a handicap, so you're gonna do my work for me? Don't be so damned cocky!"

"Die, you wretched mortal!" He retorted, a hellish green glow forming in the back of his throat. Neon green fire raced from his mouth, a jet of flames as large as anything Saffron had tried to use against me. I used Herb's own technique against the monster in his body, skipping across the grass and to my left in a series of short hops which changed the angle of attack with every step. The fire followed me and I once again surged from the ground, landing on my foe's body. The flow of fire from his mouth ceased and a thick smoke billowed out, obscuring Gong Gong's face.

That meant he couldn't see me, either. I used another of his lashing coils to bound right in front of the Dragon's mouth, readying the Kinjakan once again.

"How does a Hiryu Shoten Ha taste, monster?" I yelled, angling the technique directly into that gaping maw. The resulting tornado obediently launched itself right down the Dragon's throat, and I heard a sickening crunch even as I saw those big teeth of his fly loose. Fangs longer than I was tall rained down on the Musk watching nearby and they fled in response. I caught the edge of the tornado and used it to angle myself away from the Dragon's head, landing lightly on the ground.

The Hiryu Shoten Ha continued to drill its way down Gong Gong's throat, until he forcefully wrenched his head to the side and spat, the winds tearing more teeth and sending blood into the air in a vulgar spray from his dripping jaw. Malice glowed in those eyes as he took me in, standing relaxed in the grass in front of him. One great claw rose to his lips, wiping away a trickle of blood.

Well, a trickle for him maybe: If I lost that much blood in a single wound, I'd be dead.

"You cocky mortal… You think such blows harm me? Have one for yourself!" I felt a hideous, terrifying surge of power and in one outstretched claw Gong Gong summoned a mass of chi that dwarfed his own great head. He flung the blast at me with a dismissive wave of his wrist.

It was too big, coming too fast. I couldn't hope to outrun the explosion that would result from all that pent up energy. I might be able to deflect it. I hoped the Kinjakan's enhancing powers would be up to the task. I leveled the golden staff in front of me, channeling as much chi as I could grasp outwards, towards the top side of the blast racing at me.

"MOUKO TAKABISHA!" I screamed, feeling my strength leave me for a moment as the great blast I'd created rocketed towards Gong Gong's own attack. I could see mine was dwarfed, but I'd known I couldn't cancel it out with my own. They collided and mine simply ceased to exist, while Gong Gong's had it's path deflected sharply down into his own tail, still laying negligently in front of me.

He shrieked, the chi ripping through his body in a fantastic display of raw power: It detonated as it hit the ground and threw a spray of blood and chunks of cooked dragon meat all over the landscape. The dusk settled, the eerie calm of the area punctuated by the feral shrieks of my foe.

Gong Gong was missing nearly a quarter mile of his tail, and blood stained the earth beneath his feet. The separated portion of his tail lay where it had fallen, twitching slightly as blood spurted through the few parts of the wound which had not been cauterized.

"That makes the first round yours, Gong Gong! You seem to be doing all the damage in this fight!" I don't know if he heard me over his own shrieking but I didn't care. After a moment his shrieking subsided, raw malevolence pouring from his aura as he turned angrily glowing eyes on me.

"I will flay your soul for millennia for this insult, feeble human!" Gong Gong surged from where he rested, coming towards me faster than I expected a creature that large to move.

I ran to meet him, bounding up at the last second to escape his massive jaws as he attempted to swallow me whole. I bounced off of his brow, feeling ribs creak as I tumbled through the air. I snagged some of the hair on his back, and a plan formed.

I firmly planted my feet, gripping the hair firmly, and began to hack at the scales on the back of Gong Gong's head with the Kinjakan: Even if I couldn't figure out how to launch the ring, I could still use that obscenely sharp edge to my advantage. On the second blow, the scales began to part. On the third, I'd exposed the skin underneath. The fourth saw trickles of blood began to spurt forth. I relentlessly hacked as Gong Gong began to writhe, thankful he hadn't thought to smash his neck into the ground.

The wound quickly grew large and deep, slick blood now threatening to dislodge my footing. I judged the wound ready for this attempt, large enough I could have fit inside.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" I screamed, launching myself free even as the winds tore right into the wound. Winds red with blood and gore sprayed as Gong Gong brought one claw up to cup the injury. I saw a talon fly loose for his trouble, and he shrieked again as the tornado bored through more of his neck.

I grabbed the wineskin with the waters from the Chiisuiton from my belt, uncorking it and throwing it into the heart of the tornado. I silently prayed.

Water began falling all around us as the sky wept, the storm that had been threatening for the entire morning finally breaking.

≈

Author's Notes:

Things are clearly coming to a head. I should have had this up some time ago, a fact Lady Shinimegami will surely take me to task for later. In my defense, I had a birthday present to pick up. At least this update is a little more substantial.

The next chapter should arrive shortly. I've already got the rest of the story plotted, and the epilogue is writing itself in my head even as I type this out.

Cheers for now,

-Gaming Ikari


	9. Chapter 8

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Chapter 8

≈

With a dull, wet thud I landed on the ground, thankful that I'd bothered to wear a shirt this time. It would have been embarrassing if I'd flashed the entire Musk army. Close by, a nude Gong Gong wearing Herb's female form struggled to her feet, blood dripping from her gap-toothed mouth and large wounds here and there on her body. Even as I watched, she seemed to regenerate... Teeth growing back in seconds and the wounds closing, leaving lurid white scars against her skin.

Crap. Now I couldn't even rely on taking her down through attrition. It'd have to be in one shot, otherwise it'd eventually heal.

I'd hoped that Gong Gong losing his tail would have corresponded to her losing her feet, but I guess I wasn't quite that lucky. I should be thankful that the change happened at all, given her immense size and the relatively small amounts of water pouring down from the clouds.

I glanced around for the Kinjakan, though it was no where in sight. I'd lost it when I'd uncorked the wineskin, believing that keeping Gong Gong in a human form that I could hurt myself far outweighed the benefit of having that staff's powers. As a dragon, I'd be unable to fight at him at all... Only the Hiryu Shoten Ha, augmented by Gong Gong's own power, was able to do any damage.

"Round one goes to you, human," Gong Gong acknowledged, wiping blood away from her chin with a thumb as she stood. She stretched, joints popping as her arms stretched above her head, her back arching. She possessed a fluid grace I knew even I didn't have. "Though you realize the problem you've got now with this transformation, don't you?"

"What problem's that?" I asked, warily crouching as I watched her. She didn't move, simply waiting. I blinked, and in that split-second she covered the half the distance between us. I barely had time to leap away before her leg slashed through where I'd been, continuing into a rock and turning it to powder.

Ah, that problem.

"I'm still as fast as I was, but I've got to move a whole lot less of me, now." Gong Gong merely stood, watching me land and waiting as I assessed my situation. She was perfectly calm, none of the earlier rage I'd seen consuming her mind. She was fighting smart again... But why? She should have been furious. Obviously the dragon form was her choice for the fight, because she hadn't switched to the Jusenkyo-cursed form out of choice. I, and the rainstorm, forced that change on her.

"Feh, you're pretty confident for a god who's been turned into a little girl," I said, grinning as I watched her stance shift. "You're a little faster now, but we both know you're a lot more vulnerable! I can beat the crap out of you now! You're calm because you know I'll win the fight if you're all pissed off!"

Her eyes narrowed, and she blurred. This time I was prepared, and I flipped forward and to the right, bring my leg around, causing my heel to crash directly into her face. She fell backwards mid-flight, my leg going numb from the shock as she limply bounced along the ground. I tumbled through the air and caught myself on my hands, vaulting back to my feet to face Gong Gong.

She slowly pulled herself to her feet, shaking off the effects of the kick. Her neck hung limply, cleanly broken. She shifted her neck, and I heard the pops as her spine fixed itself while I rubbed my leg, bringing some feeling back to it.

"So you can barely handle a direct attack at that speed," Gong Gong crowed, nodding with an appraising gleam in her eyes. Her hands and feet began to glow and she crouched. "Let's see how you do against this!"

Again she blurred, but this time I heard dirt being ripped to my right and only hand time to watch her rising knee before throwing my forearms up in a cross-guard, blunting the blow and being launched away from the camp. I hit the ground and rolled, kicking my feet hard into the ground to turn the movement into back-flip which ended with me perched on a rock. A scuff to my left and I jumped and rolled towards it, punching straight down as Gong Gong passed underneath and sharply bouncing her off the stone, splitting it.

Gong Gong again rolled to her feet, throwing her broken right arm wide as she stared at me, letting me her the sick crunching as it untwisted itself and mended. She was grinning at me, eager for this fight. Trying to intimidate me with her impressive regeneration. She knew a wound like that would mean the end of the fight for me.

The weakness to her attack was it's speed. She was moving too fast to react to any counter-attacks. Likely she expected me to be unable to follow her speed as much as I was, and to be truthful I was barely managing. At that speed, one or two missed blocks on my part would spell the end. She knew it, too.

"Very good, human," Gong Gong grinned, seeming to consider. She looked up at the rain-clouds, a dark look crossing her face. She glanced back at me. "This rain is actually helping you, isn't it? I remember that, from my memories as that fool, Herb. That female form gives you that extra bit of speed you need to handle my attacks."

"Yeah, so? What're you gonna do, stop the rain? Good luck! I've been trying to do that since I got this curse!"

"Very good prediction, human," Gong Gong admitted, her hands glowing as she slammed them into the ground. I felt no disturbances, making the glowing a form of magic or something. Bright rays of hellish red light pierced the sky, heating the rain before dispersing the clouds. Gong Gong stood, re-examining me in my male form. "Pity. I was hoping that your little trick with the Chiisuiton had failed."

What, magic now? What else would I have to deal with? Wait, no: If she could really use magic to attack me, she would have done so by now. Thank the gods for small miracles.

"Now, let's see how well you can keep up with my speed!" Gong Gong blurred, and though I heard the scuff of her bare feet on rock I couldn't turn in time to intercept her fist, which plowed into the side of my face and sent me tumbling across the ground. I managed to get my hands in place to thrust myself up, sliding on the balls of my feet as I watched Gong Gong approach, feeling the right side of my face beginning to swell.

This time, thanks to the speed at which I was skidding, I had time to react. I allowed myself to fall backwards on to my back, planting my feet on her stomach and throwing her wildly, high into the air. Mid-air, her speed meant nothing. With no leverage, she was forced to slow, then stop at the apogee of her impromptu flight before gravity began to claim her. I sprinted towards where she was falling, pulling my chi in like a cloak.

Sorry, old man. I've got to break that promise.

Briefly unable to track me as I ran behind her back and only vaguely aware of where I was thanks to the Umisenken's chi masking, Gong Gong couldn't fully defend against the double kick directed into her face. Channeling chi to my feet, I was able to get right in front of her as she rolled to her feet, her arms instinctively guarding. The Yamasenken's Moko Kaimon Ha seperated her arms, allowing me to drive another kick directly into her solar plexus, bouncing her back again.

Gong Gong jumped, trying to put some distance between us she coughed up blood. Another burst of speed thanks to Herb's flying technique saw me bounce underneath her, allowing me to jump up and wrap my legs around her waist, striking the Haku Dato Shinsho points. This stunned her long enough for me to push free, blasting her into a rock with a Moku Takabisha fired from each hand.

I landed in a crouch, watching Gong Gong slowly stand, pulling her twisted and broken body back together.

"Very good try, human! Don't you get it yet? I am immortal!" Gong Gong's laughter echoed, and I grinned. Her laughter cut short as she warily watched me stand, crossing my arms.

"Oh I get it, Gong Gong! Your regeneration doesn't work unless you're focusing on it! And if you're dead, you won't be able to do it at all! That's why you were afraid of fighting Saffron! You die, and you don't come back!" Her eyes widened, and I knew I'd figured it out. That didn't change the fact that I still had to beat her, but it was one thing out of the way.

One thing at a time, just like this entire trip.

"Kill him!" Gong Gong snarled to the nearby Musk, who grabbed their weapons and began to advance in response. Kiima and her people didn't disappoint, throwing themselves against the Musk battle-lines. The two armies clashed around us, and I charged towards Gong Gong with a grin. She met me, countering Amaguriken-speed blows with an equal number of punches, though hers were still far stronger.

I twisted back, letting one of her overthrown punches pull her off balance, snaking my hand to the back of her neck and throwing her to the ground with a guided sweep-kick. As she rolled forward, I leaped back and grabbed her hair, using it to slap away a Musk warrior before tossing her into the air. She met my Moko Takabisha with a far stronger chi blast of her own, making me furrow a trench in the earth as I tried to roll with the massive blow.

I coughed up blood with a groan as I rolled to my feet, feeling sharp pain in my sides. Gong Gong grinned.

"You've had a good run, mortal. Once you are destroyed, I can rally my people with ease and overrun that mountain!" Gong Gong said, turning and watching the battle all around us. The Musk were losing ground to the Phoenix, as training and teamwork overcame the more individualistic fighting style employed by the half-men.

I had to keep fighting. Had to keep it up long enough for the defeat to turn into a rout. With a wordless cry I ran at Gong Gong, bouncing above her head and striking in her blind spot with lightning speed. She blocked, lashing out with a kick to my stomach which sent me tumbling back. I didn't have time to recover as she seemed to blur and appear in front of me, lashing out with a vicious uppercut which had me flipping backwards.

My graceless flight was cut short by a small rock embankment, and my vision briefly went dark before going blurry as I fell to my hands and knees. In the distance, Gong Gong's distorted figure casually strolled towards me as I tried to shake my vision clear. Crap.

I weakly raised my hands to try to loosen Gong Gong's grasp as she lifted me by the front of my shirt, to no avail. Around us, the battle surged as the Phoenix drove the Musk back... Not that it was doing me much good right now. At least my vision was clearing.

"Any last words?" Gong Gong idly asked, cocking her fist back. I couldn't believe I was losing. How could I lose? I'm invincible! I'm god-damned Ranma Saotome! I wasn't going to have any last words, 'cuz I'd be speaking a lot more after the battle!

I slammed my open palm into Gong Gong's face, wordlessly blasting a Moko Takabisha into her at point blank range and throwing her back, leaving her to roll away with a scrap of my shirt in her hands. As she stood, I saw anger. Finally!

"Shoulda killed me when you had the chance!" I spat, wiping the blood from the corner of my lip with the back of my hand. Maybe a Hiryu Shoten Ha could finish things... No. I had to do something else. She knew the technique, too, and certainly wouldn't be fooled by it. Or would she? "Come on, you sorry excuse for a god! No wonder you lost Heaven's throne if you can't even take out a human!"

With direct lines, Gong Gong charged at me with that frightening speed of hers, knowing me in circles and beating the crap out of me as I fell back, my body groaning and my vision blurring as I stumbled towards the center of the spiral. It didn't matter so much if she was going in a spiral with those attacks of hers, all that mattered was if I was.

Almost there...

Without warning, a shape dropped from the sky, slamming Gong Gong into the ground and spoiling the spiral. I groaned as Kiima angrily twisted her blade where it was lodged in Gong Gong's stomach before being thrown aside by an open-handed slap which caught her across the jaw and left her dazed.

Gong Gong stood, tossing Kiima's sword to the ground as she approached the bird woman. Damn it... Mustering what little remained of my strength, I threw myself at Gong Gong and caught her off-guard, landing a kick which cleanly broke a rib and sent her crumpling to the ground.

"Kiima, are you okay?" I demanded, keeping an eye on Gong Gong's prone form as I landed beside her. Aside from the bruise forming on her jaw, she looked fine. "What are you doing? This is my fight!"

"And you were doing so well, Saotome," Kiima retorted, regaining her feet and flaring her wings as she prepared to take flight again. She glanced sideways at me, a small smirk on her face. "Another few hits, and you surely would have broken her fist with your face. It's a masterful tactic, really."

"I had things under control!" I retorted, jumping away as Gong Gong charged us. Kiima followed suit, launching herself into the air and flaring her wings, allowing a thermal to grip her and hurl her hundreds of feet up. She began to circle us as I dodged Gong Gong's attacks, looking for an opening.

Gong Gong countered an Amaguriken punch with her own natural speed, reaching out with a hand to try to snag my pigtail. I twisted my head, dancing the end out of her grasp as I threw a fist into her throat, following up with an aerial which cleared her sweep kick and allowed me to brutally shatter her left kneecap, for the moment. I followed up with an almost soccer-style kick away as she fell, her leg unable to support her weight.

Kiima followed this up by diving into Gong Gong from many feet up, slamming her into the ground and using the momentum to launch herself back up into the air, readying herself for a second pass. Gong Gong rolled to her feet, her bones popping as the fixed themselves, pure malevolence on her face.

"Not doing so well now, are you, Gong Gong?" I asked, looking around at the army. The Musk were clearly being pushed back, the lightning assault of the Phoenix routing the unprepared Musk. Without the Musk's clear superiority of numbers, numbers I'd removed in that second Musk assault, they couldn't handle the advantage fighting afforded to their foes. "Your army is scattered!"

Gong Gong launched herself at me, her fists coming strong and fast as I bobbed and weaved, doing my best to dodge them. Kiima assaulted Gong Gong a third time, and I followed up by jumping atop Gong Gong and pummeling her with my fists, her arms pinned at her sides by my legs.

"I will not be embarrassed like this!" Gong Gong snarled, her aura flaring and throwing me free. Kiima, mid-dive, was sent head-over-heels through the air before she landed on her feet. Gong Gong closed with her, and I cried out as I tried to close the gap.

Kiima didn't see it coming as Gong Gong approached from behind with deadly speed, launching a brutal assault which left her spinning through the air, her breath laboured and her wings bent and broken. I caught her, absorbing Gong Gong's follow up chi blast on my back with a grim determination as I gently set Kiima down on the ground. Her breath was shallow and her face pale, blood trickling from her mouth in tiny rivulets, a stark contrast to her alabaster white skin.

"Let's see how well you can do without your little girlfriend, mortal," Gong Gong hissed, and I turned to meet her assault as a mindless rage overwhelmed me, strengthening my limbs as my mind went blank. She'd nearly killed Kiima, robbed her of flight. I waded in, ignoring my body's protests as I pushed myself further and faster, sending Gong Gong on a rapid defense, forcing her to stumble back under the ferocity of my rage.

Yamasenken techniques flowed into Amazon techniques, mixing in enough Anything Goes to continuously pressure Gong Gong from counter-attacking, each blow meant for nothing less than her destruction. I coughed blood as I attacked, feeling the pains in my sides increase as I pushed through my injuries and pushed myself more and more.

Faster and faster we circled, Gong Gong flinching from each blow, her right arm hanging useless and unmoving as I forced her to concentrate on my attack and not on regenerating herself. Her ribs cracked, her jaw snapped and muscles tore as I clawed my way through her defenses, ignoring my own injuries as I did my best to kill her.

A punch meant to cave in her skull flew high as she spun underneath my right arm, and she twisted out of the way as I followed up with a round-house, which in turn flowed into an aerial kick which she dodged by rolling into an aerial of her own, spinning around to face my right flank.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Gong Gong exulted triumphantly, winds springing up to hurtle me through the air, attacking my chi and draining my will to fight. She'd led me this far to allow me to be caught in her trap, I realized with a cold shock. "I win, you puny human! I will crush that mountain to dust beneath my feet and it's people will be my slaves!"

No!

I flared my hot chi, feeding it into the cold winds surrounding me. Gong Gong should have known better. I'd already created a counter to the Hiryu Shoten Ha. I grabbed the cold chi from the air around me. Gong Gong's eyes widened as Herb's memory revealed what had happened last time I'd been in this situation, albeit with the chi types used reversed.

"Hiryu Korin Dan!" I screamed, sending a writhing mass of cold chi down the center of the tornado, flattening Gong Gong into the ground and allowing me to land nearby. I was nearly spent, but I saw Gong Gong begin to rise and charged, unable to muster the energy to utilize Herb's flying trick.

"You can't kill me with your fists in that weakened state!" Gong Gong laughed, preparing for my last assault. She didn't see Kiima's blade in my hand until it raced for her neck, too quickly for her to stop. She lashed out one last time and shattered my ribs as her head flew, struck off with a simple Kendo strike, the only real sword style I knew well enough to emulate.

I collapsed as Gong Gong died, my vision going dark.

My limbs were heavy, and I couldn't move.

I was so tired.

Everything was cold.

Damn.

≈

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the delay, kids. There's just the epilogue to go, now.

-Gaming Ikari


	10. Epilogue

Loss, Hope, and Redemption

Epilogue

≈

His face was gentle, perhaps even serene. His eyes stared up at the night sky as all around us the Phoenix cleaned up after the Musk rout. I wanted to chide him for his laziness, in not helping us move the bodies to the various burn piles, but I couldn't.

You can't chide the dead for anything.

It was hard, the fact he was dead. He'd come from his home to save an enemy who'd tried to kill him and his loved ones, and died so that his enemy's family could live. It was a strange thought, to ascribe nobility to someone who had still been a child, but it fit. Across the battlefield, I saw Lord Saffron walking towards us, towards Gong Gong's body.

Why was Saffron an adult?

I gently knelt by Ranma's side, closing his eyes, that he might see peace in the next world instead of the battlefield in this one. He'd died here, without any of his family around him. I might have been his only friend for hundreds of miles. My people respected him, respected the power he'd wielded, but they'd never befriended him. Most were doing their best to ignore his death, pretending they didn't notice me weeping.

As if they could have missed the clash of two titans which had dominated the entire war. This battle we'd won had been by his hand, due to his annihilation of the enemy forces in collapsing one of the gate entrances on the Musk army. The after battle report stated we'd found hundreds of dead Musk, caught in the initial cave-in or struck by rocks from the ensuing avalanche on the outside of the mountain. Ranma had even neutralized a foe who'd rendered his own army redundant.

I coughed, tasted coppery blood as I stood to meet Lord Saffron. I would heal. Like all Phoenix, my ability to heal was unsurpassed by most other mortal creatures. Broken bones healed in a matter of days, not weeks, and would rarely heal improperly. I'd be able to fly within weeks and had never been in danger due to my injuries.

"Kiima, your wings..." Saffron's concern was touching, but misplaced.

"Isn't there anything you can do?' I asked, gesturing to Ranma. I wanted my Lord to tell me that yes, he could use his powers to bring him back. To return him to life... but my heart dropped to my knees as he shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Kiima... My power only works on myself," Saffron admitted, a pained look on his face. Pain for my grief, or pain for Ranma's death? I didn't care any longer. He walked over to the man who'd killed him, looking down with concern clear on his face. "I have but one final task for you, Kiima."

"A task, Lord Saffron?" I knew what it'd be, of course. Saffron may have been a spoiled child, but he certainly had a sense of duty.

"Someone will have to tell his family," Saffron said gravely. He gestured to Ranma. "I would tell them myself, but the gods have demanded I depart within the hour. With the Dragon dead, the Phoenix is no longer needed to support the balance of this valley. After thousands of years, I will finally rejoin my brethren in Heaven."

"What of his-" Saffron cut me off, placing his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.

"I've demanded he be interred with the highest of honors. The north tower is no longer required for my quarters. It shall be his tomb, where our people can go to pay their respects to the man who ensured they could live in peace," He smiled, knowing full well how much that decision would bother the council. He knew they would have preferred to sweep the matter under the carpet and ensure that Ranma's deeds would be forgotten within generations.

He'd taken steps that meant that even long after our people were gone, a record of Ranma's deeds would remain. I wouldn't have preferred anything else and was glad that Lord Saffron felt the same.

I departed almost immediately, changing into my cursed form to allow my wings to heal without the need of braces. His family had a right to know as soon as possible. It was my fault Ranma was here. It was I who'd journeyed to his home and forced the choice on him, of helping me or ignoring the Musk.

It would be my responsibility to tell his family that he'd died a hero.

≈

I've always felt strange in Japanese cities, doubly-so because I was wearing someone else's face. I didn't like being constrained to plodding along the ground, having to move so slowly. Though I suppose I was in no rush. A mix of emotions filled me. Anticipation. Dread. Sorrow. One of the greatest people I'd had the honor of meeting was dead and it fell to me to tell his family.

What could I say to them? That he'd died honorably was a small, fleeting comfort for their sorrow. That he'd vanquished a foe my people had feared for millennium before he'd died would simply be another feather in his all-too-full cap. How could I possibly-

"Akane-san?" I looked up sharply, vaguely recognizing the boy in front of me from months ago. He'd been there when Ranma had fought Saffron... My mind raced as I searched forgotten encounters for the name. Ryouga. "Those are some strange clothes."

"I'm not Akane, Ryouga," I finally said, and Ryouga's face grew confused for a moment. "I'm Kiima."

His face darkened, his hands clenching into fists at his side.

"I need to talk to Ranma's family. It's important," I didn't want to fight him. By all accounts I'd heard, he was Ranma's rival. His equal, with the both of them playing a game of tit-for-tat and increasing in power as they met time and time again. "It's about Ranma."

"What about him?" Ryouga demanded, glaring. He crossed his arms over his chest as he challenged me. "The last I heard, he was off with you and left Akane all by herself."

"He's... Look, I'm not going to explain this more than once," I finally said. I didn't want to explain it... Not yet. I began to walk away, pausing only to glance back at the fanged boy. "Are you coming?"

Ryouga followed silently as I wandered through Nerima, lost in my own thoughts as I observed one of the places that had shaped Ranma, the place which had been his home. I passed by Furinkan High as I walked, smiling at the constant repair work along the outer wall, no doubt a result of one of Ranma's fights.

"Hey, this is important, right?" Ryouga asked, reading my silence, if only a little. He gestured to an Okonomiyaki restaurant. Right, his friend... Ucchan, I think he'd said. "I'll get Ukyou and meet you at the Tendou dojo."

With those words, he disappeared inside the shop as I walked towards my destination.

≈

The Tendou dojo intimidated me far more than the Musk army ever had. At least when facing down those terrible foes who'd come to burn my home I had a purpose and a sense of what I should do, how I should act. With Ranma's family, his friends, I had nothing of the sort. All I had was the death of a man who'd come far from his home to end a war which was not his own.

With a deep sigh, I knocked on the gates, waiting as I heard footsteps approach the door. A young woman, her brown hair bound in a ponytail handing over one shoulder, opened the door.

"Akane? I thought you were training!" The girl was surprised, and based on her similarity to my current form, no doubt one of the three Tendou sisters. That little confusion would no doubt get old very quick.

"No, I'm not Akane," I answered, stepping inside the gate and looking around. Here and there were the tell-tale signs of constant repair, but overwhelming the scars of battle was a sense of peace. The lone cherry tree, blossoms beginning to sprout, engulfed me with a strange sense of serenity after the swirling chaos he'd described when he was talking of his home. "I bring news of Ranma."

That was all it took, the young woman hurrying inside without another word, urgency overriding her sense of propriety. I followed her inside, passing by her on the phone to stop briefly in the kitchen to find some hot water. I tilted a battered brass kettle over my head, stretching my wings as I luxuriated in my true form and the warm water running down my back.

"So, you're here but Ranma isn't," A voice announced from the doorway. I turned to see a young woman with her hair sharply trimmed to shoulder length. The shape of her face and the uncanny resemblance to my cursed form told me she was the other sister. "I didn't mean anything personal about that night, you know."

"The night you wanted me to die?" I asked, coolly observing her as I refilled the kettle and set it once more on the stove. I folded my now-healed wings back, crossing my arms under my breasts.

"Don't lecture me about morals," The young woman hissed, gesturing towards me. "Because of you, my sister nearly died at the hands of a god so powerful that even one of the best martial artists in the world barely won! You have no right to tell me what's right and wrong!"

"And yet, you're feeling guilt about it," I smirked, returning the heated glare with a cool smile. I pointed at her with one hand, not bothering to lift it from my stomach. "You feel guilt about how you treated me that night, otherwise you wouldn't be so sensitive about your morals. Though you're wrong about Ranma's strength... It surpassed Lord Saffron's strength so much that I'm amazed it took him as long as it did to rescue your sister."

"What do you mean by that?" The girl growled at me, stepping forward until she was nose to nose with me. I casually noted that she was nearly the same height as me, her roiling brown eyes inches from my own.

"You don't realize, do you?" I demanded, stepping forward and forcing her to stumble back a half step. "Ranma's goal when he was fighting Lord Saffron was never defeating him! It was secondary to saving your sister! The fight was a footnote to his goal of getting your sister's dehydrated form to the proper spring... If Lord Saffron had stepped aside, Ranma would have ignored him!"

"Ranma... could have ignored a god?" The young woman asked, stepping back out of my personal space.

I strode out into the living room, going over what I knew and waiting until his family and friends were all present. I didn't want to tell this story more than once. Hearing it once from Lord Saffron had been enough.

≈

All around me, Ranma's family and friends waited in anticipation for me to speak. The Amazons sat in the back, watching me warily as they whispered amongst themselves. Ranma's various rivals, Ryouga included, sat beside them and watched me, unmoving. Front and center were Ranma's various fiancees and his family, eager to hear what had happened.

How to begin? How do I tell them that their loved one was dead? How can I possibly tell them that Ranma had passed from this world? Remembering Lord Saffron's tale and his wisdom about the prophecy, I decided to start at the beginning.

"At the birth of history, there was a war among the gods for the throne of Heaven. One god, a foolish dragon named Gong Gong, warred against his elders and was eventually sealed within a mortal body, confined to be passed from generation to generation among that people, nothing more than a sealed beast within their souls," I paused, taking in their rapt attention as they wondered what this could possibly have to do with Ranma. "To balance this, the gods cast down a Phoenix to guard this Dragon God and keep him within a certain valley in China. That Phoenix was a young godling named Saffron who wielded great power, but lacked wisdom."

I paused, beginning to stride back and forth as I marshaled my thoughts. They were beginning to get agitated as well, recognizing the name and becoming anxious, almost afraid of hearing more.

"For time uncounted, the Dragon and the Phoenix held a fragile peace. The Dragon's people, the Musk, and the Phoenix tribe held an uneasy truce which never broke into outright warfare throughout the entire period of Gong Gong's imprisonment," I stopped, facing Ranma's parents. "A Phoenix soothsayer, Michiyo, foretold the arrival of The Warden, a human who would shatter the balance of our valley and destroy the dragon god once and for all. Your son. Ranma Saotome."

"My son..." Genma trailed, his gaze falling to his hands. Ranma's mother merely clung to her husband, fright wracking her frame as she looked at me with tear-filled eyes. Both were beginning to realize, reading my own nervousness.

"Ranma Saotome, The Warden, shattered the balance of the valley by defeating the Phoenix, rending him limb from limb in the name of a slip of a girl, not yet an adult," I nodded to the source of my cursed form as her eyes widened. "He killed the Phoenix before our god could make the usual preparations for a period of dormancy, allowing the prince of the Musk to wage war on my people with impunity. With no other options left to me, I fled through the enemy lines and made for the home of my people's worst enemy, hoping beyond hope that he would help."

"That's when you wandered to our doorstep," Akane noted, standing up and moving to my side. She placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "That was why you were in my home and why Ranma left with you... I didn't realize!"

"He left out of duty, but his thoughts were always with you," I noted, placing a hand on her shoulder in turn. I turned my head to the rest of the gathered people. "He returned me to my home, defeating Herb as he arrived and returning not just one of our magical staves, but our ability to fly, stolen from us through Musk sorcery. Within a day, he'd rekindled our will and ability to fight. Within a week, he'd bolstered our courage and handed such a bitter defeat to our foes that victory was no longer just a fragile dream."

"The boy does know how to stir things up!" A tiny, grizzled old man noted, drawing another breath of tobacco from his pipe. He glanced at me with a small smile. "Well, continue your tale, girl!"

"Within another week, the Musk grew desperate enough to sacrifice their prince to release the dragon god Gong Gong from his imprisonment, unleashing him on our valley at the height of his power. His very aura pierced the mountain, maddening my people with fear," I smiled wistfully, looking outside of the dojo to the carp pond at the rear of the house. "In the face of this, Ranma Saotome challenged the god to a one on one duel."

"Sounds like him," Ryouga noted with a wry smile, glancing at Akane. "I was there for the fight with the Orochi. A dragon with just one head should have been child's play to him!"

"Anything but," I countered, shaking my head. "Gong Gong's true form was larger and longer than anything I've ever seen. Still Ranma fought, eventually trapping Gong Gong in Herb's female form. He then defeated Gong Gong, pushing past her god-granted strength to take her head. It was how Ranma earned his title, whispered in myths in our history before this nation had a written language."

I laid my sword, the sword Ranma had used to slay Gong Gong, on the table. With a gentle hand, I slid it towards Ranma's parents. His mother gingerly picked it up, examining the blade with a kind of numbness.

"Ranma died escorting Gong Gong to the gates of Hell itself before taking his place among the gods in Heaven," I finished, noting the looks of shock on everyone's face as I finally pronounced Ranma's fate.

I couldn't stand their accusing eyes as the weight of my words crashed down on them, as they realized he was dead.

My duty fulfilled, my resolve to face their gazes faltered and I ran.

≈

With a heavy heart, I made my way back home. Like a coward, I'd fled from Ranma's family. My feet dragged and my flight was slow, reflective. It took me weeks to return. When I finally arrived at my home, Suzu sought me out in my chambers before I'd even had a chance to freshen up.

"Lady Kiima?" I glanced at the young girl, her wings now healed. She slipped into the door, closing it quietly behind her. Her gaze at her feet, her talon traced a design on the stone as she searched for words. "We decided to wait until you returned before we opened Ranma's tomb. I thought you might like to..."

"Thank you, Suzu," I said, nodding to her. I gestured to myself with a small smile. "I'll have a bath first, but I'll be there within the hour."

She nodded, departing through the door without another word. After a brief visit to the bath chambers, I returned to my quarters and dressed, making my way to Saffron's former quarters.

I was greeted by nearly one third of the mountain, filling the hallways so I had to squeeze through. I recognized many as soldiers in our army, though civilians were plentiful as well. Most of them were younger members of the tribe, ones who'd only been around for the last time Saffron had been an adult... The spoiled child Ranma had confronted and slain.

As I reached the doorway, I was surprised to see that the painting of Saffron had been replaced by a painting of Ranma. As depicted, he was standing calmly as he faced a dragon of monstrous proportions, a look of peace on his face. I nearly chuckled at it: For my Ranma, the one I'd known for that all-too-short month, being nearly so wise-looking was impossible.

I walked up to the door, accepting the key from one of the members of the council. It was the same key I'd held for years as Saffron's surrogate mother. I turned the key, hearing the lock click as the familiar mechanism turned. I removed the key, placing it in my belt pouch before realizing it was no longer mine. I made to fish it back out when I felt a light grip on my wrist.

"Saffron was your responsibility, but this groundling was your friend. You shall hold the only key to this place," He pronounced, garnering a cheer from the assembled crowd who could hear the exchange, a cheer which was taken up by those down the halls until the very mountain seemed to shake with the noise.

Overcome, I could only push the door open.

The tower itself was much changed from the time when it was Saffron's nursery. Most of the walls and furniture were gone save for those pillars which made the tower stable, leaving one large auditorium forty feet tall, two hundred feet wide and three hundred feet deep. Though no torches lit the tomb, it was illuminated by dozens of stained glass windows, making the whole thing almost dreamlike. Light ranging from the palest blue to the darkest red to the brightest yellow lit individual sections of the place, with every color in between splashed here or there. Dominating it all was a clear dome of crystal set in the roof which brightened the entire place from gloom to something more, allowing the sun to honor one of the mortals in her domain.

"This was Saffron's last gift before he departed," Suzu noted, now at my side. She gestured towards the bier at the back of the room, then swept her hands all around. "Moments after he announced that this was to be Ranma's, we found everything changed like this."

I approached the white marble which was Ranma's final resting place, almost dwarfed by the emptiness around it. As I advanced, I heard people flood into the tomb behind me. Like the craftsmanship on the stained glass and the perfection of the crystal dome, the relief of Ranma lying on the stone tablet was too perfect to be the work of mortal hands. It was real enough to be him, covered in white dust he'd brush off when he awoke.

I felt a lump claw it's way up from my chest, coming to rest in my throat as I looked at him. My eyes fell from the carving of him to an engraved stone book on a pedestal behind him which detailed his confrontation with Gong Gong. I walked over to read it, my fingers tracing the characters which spelled out his name.

It detailed the legend of The Warden, his subsequent arrival in our valley and the fight with Saffron which finally brought a stalemate thousands of years old to an end. It told of his return, his defeat over Gong Gong and his death.

It didn't say anything about his cocky smile, his love for battle... His passion for life. It told me nothing of my Ranma, nothing of the person I'd known. I barely recognized the events carved on those two stone pages, so disconnected from the man I knew. Already he'd passed from this world into legend... Where heroes cannot have flaws or weaknesses. There was no mention of his self-doubt when he'd been faced with the truth of war.

I'd lost him. Lost him to Gong Gong, then lost him again to the legend he'd become.

The crowd around me was adoring the legend, not him. Never him. They didn't know him.

Grief overwhelmed me and I left this shallow assembly, making my way through the crowd.

≈

"It's been a year, Ranma," I noted, sitting on his bier with my hand resting on his stone chest. The Warden's Day celebration had been long, lasting hours after the sun had set. Outside, the moon hung in a dark sky scattered with stars. The massive room was dimly lit by the candle I'd set on the ground nearby, turning his carved face into a play of ink-blank shadows on white marble. "We've finally negotiated peace with the Musk and we're working on a similar truce with the Amazons across the valley. You've shifted the balance again, for the better."

I traced my hand to one of the carved shirt pegs before returning my hand to my lap as I gazed through that crystal dome at the stars outside. Clear as if I was standing on the highest peak, My eyes followed the few craters on the moon I could make out before returning to Ranma's face.

"I wish you were here to see the peace, Ranma. I wish you were here to see that your efforts haven't been wasted. I wish you were here to see the happiness of the next generation, the younglings who weren't old enough to understand we'd been fighting that war," I spoke quietly, my voice barely carrying to the candle. I stood, placing a hand again on his chest. "I wish I could have had longer to know you better. I wish I could have been just a little more than a friend. I... I wish."

I stood in silence, pondering my words, pondering the events nearly a year past. Almost in answer to my prayers, I thought I felt a tremor through the marble, as if Ranma's stone heart had beat just once, just for me.

That dark beast crawled back up to my throat and my hand remained, hoping against hope that I'd feel just one more tremble. I waited breathlessly, my hands trembling... Nothing. It had been the foolish hope of a foolish woman. I gathered my candle and began towards the door.

I'd taken two steps when a fierce crack echoed through the tomb from behind me. I spun in reaction, seeing a pale while fist emerging from the center of the carved Ranma's chest. It opened into a widened hand which slapped down on the side of the chest, before the rest of the carving shattered as a cloud of marble dust rolled towards me, obscuring my vision. From the depths of that marble fog I heard a deep, angry growl. A dark figure strode from the cloud.

"Those jerks!" Ranma groused, not noticing me at all as he turned to glare at his former resting place, slapping the dust of his clothes. His red shirt and black pants still bore the marks of his fierce battle with Gong Gong, more than a year ago. "They could have at least put me back OUTSIDE of a damn thick stone coffin! Another ten minutes and I would have been right back up there! Pompous, self-righteous assholes!"

I wanted to laugh, wanted to scream. Reckless joy pulsed through every vein in my body as I stared at the young man who'd emerged from his own coffin, a young man who was now going on to detail exactly what sort of esoteric torture he was going to visit on "those cloud-sitting idiots" the next time he was in Heaven.

"I mean really, how incompetent do you have to be to return a guy to his own damn gr-Oof!" Ranma grunted as I tackled him in a fierce hug, him lying on his back as he looked at me, bewildered. I ignored the increasing panic in his eyes as I ran my hands over his body, making sure he was real, he was alive. "Uh, Kiima?"

"You're alive!" Abandoning propriety, abandoning my own fears, I threw my hands around his neck and hugged him again. He squirmed, clearly uncomfortable with me pressed against him like I was. I finally released my hug, sitting back on his thighs as I looked down at him. "Ranma... How?"

"Well, those jerks owed me a favor. I didn't want to be a god or nothing, so that left them with bringing me back," He frowned, glaring up through the crystal dome at the sky. "Took 'em long enough, too. Blah blah, unnatural... Whatever. I still haven't learned all the cool techniques out there yet and if they can bring Saffron back, they can do the same damned thing for me!"

"You... bullied the gods into allowing you back?" I asked, my right hand raising to quell my laughter as I looked down my pinned friend. It was silly, absurd. Nobody would have the guts to make any demands of the gods... Except him, I guess.

"I got the idea from Michiyo, actually," Ranma admitted, grinning as he looked up at me. He shifted a hand to scratch at the base of his pigtail. "I figured if I was able to take out someone who managed to nearly take the throne of Heaven, I was probably just as much of a threat to the jerk sitting on the throne right now. So I told her I'd kick her ass if she didn't bring me back."

"You threatened the lord of all the gods!?" I demanded, incredulity striking me like a cold bucket of water. I'd known Ranma was cocky, but... "Wow."

"I had some help," Ranma admitted, his grin falling to a simple smile. "Both Saffron and Fang Shou told the chick on the throne not to fight me when she started to get all uppity. Since Saffron was powerful enough to be trusted to guard her most powerful foe and Fang Shou is the largest dragon in Heaven, she finally got smart and gave in to my demands."

I stared down at the young man underneath me. Less than two decades old and he'd gotten away with challenging the god on the throne of Heaven. I was amazed, not only by his strength of will, but the sheer audacity it would take to even attempt such a thing. My eyes locked on his, and I could see no worries, no regrets. He honestly thought it was no big deal he'd pissed off the most powerful god in existence.

"So... What now?" I asked, staring down into his calm blue eyes. This was the sort of serenity I pictured in Ranma. Not a wise peace, but an innocent one. More trouble undoubtedly on the way, he was instead happy that nobody was attacking him right now. It was endearing. "Back to the Tendou's?"

"Well... Akane's kinda moved on," Ranma finally admitted, shrugging as he turned his head to avoid my gaze. "Ryouga finally made a move four months back, and they're actually kind of happy. I don't wanna break that up. Ucchan's got Konatsu now... and I didn't really feel that way about her anyway. Shampoo's got no problems with her tribe now that I'm dead, so that's that taken care of."

He shifted, his eyes not quite meeting mine.

"I was actually kinda hoping I could stay here for a little while," He admitted, his eyes not rising to meet my own. "It don't mean nothing, but your people have got some cool martial arts techniques, and I wanna be the best! It ain't for anything else!"

Of course it wasn't, I thought.

I didn't even tell the servants to prepare some things for him for my room after we'd walked out of The Warden's Tomb.

Not yet.

≈

Author's Notes (Reallylong)

Fake out is go!

Sorry. I am a **bastard**. I know it. I accept it. And I chuckle at the emotional roller coaster I just put you all through... Especially after the cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 8 and leaving Ranma's resurrection to the last scene in the story. You guys didn't deserve it. Don't blame me, blame Ranshin. Ranshin got me addicted to messing with you guys. Blame the Ranshin.

Now, time to reflect on this fic as a whole! You'll enjoy that, right? If not, feel free to just skip to the bottom and leave a review, as there's not really much story stuff you haven't already read first-hand.

I set out to write this as an epic, not in it's length but in the overall tone of the story. Now the problem is that Ranma's companions from Nerima tend to lack the combined seriousness to make a story work well as an epic. Any of them by themselves or just a few together would have worked, but all of them together just don't scream epic... So rather than addressing the individual characters and spend a couple chapters eliminating them one by one I decided to just use a plot point which would get rid of the entire Nerima Wrecking Crew in one fell swoop... Hence Ranma's ejection from the Tendou Dojo.

From there, it was a simple march towards the final confrontation with Gong Gong, with Ranma engaging in suitably heroic acts while being forced to grow as a person thanks to Kiima. I largely selected her because aside from her brief appearance in the end of the manga, she was a blank slate. I was able to get away with introducing a new character by bolting certain characteristics to her without bothering to file off the serial numbers. Being first person and told from Ranma's point of view, I was able to cheat out of filling in anything about Mount Phoenix, which I think helped underscore the development between Ranma and Kiima.

Speaking of which, I didn't set out to write this as a Ranma/Kiima match up. I went into it determined to have Ranma have his epic fight and then come back with a new story to tell. Then I decided to kill Ranma off in the final fight, and _then _Lady Shinimegami told me I was a complete moron and not to kill Ranma. So that prompted nearly a year's worth of writer's block on top of the loss of a nearly-done Chapter 8 thanks to computer failure. Then I caved, but decided to throw in the "Ranma is dead" fake out, purely out of spite... Plus, I needed to give that one-year gap between Ranma's death and rebirth to allow the fiancees to move on to make the Ranma/Kiima thing work.

One thing I was careful to do was not to make Ranma too overpowered. I wanted the possibility that he wasn't going to live to be right there in the reader's mind. His growth and fights with Herb and Gong Gong tried to reflect that as much as possible. That's why I gave Ranma the boost from the Kinjakan. I knew I'd take it from him before the final battle and it gave him a plausible chance to fend off Gong Gong's dragon form, provided you make the small leap that it could enhance Ranma's chi. I figure it's a pretty old Phoenix artifact, which means it probably has more than a few nifty tricks.

The ending... I wanted it to feel both Epic and Ranma at the same time. Epic tells us that the hero generally is all messed up by the end of things... So I decided to kill Ranma. The resurrection was pure Takahashi, the hero boldly striding through a dust cloud and ignoring the amazing feat he accomplished, instead focusing on the things that were annoying him. It was a wonderful contrast which mean that last scene practically wrote itself.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the story. I'm kinda sorry to see it go. Aside from editing for spelling and such (as these chapters were all posted in an essentially raw version), I think this one is done. I might detail Ranma's time in Heaven as a side-story. Would there even be an interest? Likewise, I'm toying with the idea of rewriting the events of this fic from Kiima's point of view. Would THAT be something people are interested by?

I've got another idea for a Ranma fanfic, too... Probably twice as long as this one. Expect a first chapter sometime soon, after I take some time to edit the earlier chapters up to an acceptable level.


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